Apple is disappointing HTC with its "constant attempts at litigations instead of competing fairly in the market." That's the word from HTC general counsel Grace Lei, responding Tuesday to (ITC). This new Apple complaint--its fourth against HTC--covers what Cupertino alleges are various infringements over iPad and iPhone-related technologies.

"HTC strongly denies all infringement claims raised by Apple in the past and present."

So Apple's probably not invited to HTC's birthday party. But it's equally unlikely that Apple would accept a Google+ friend request from Samsung any time soon: Samsung has asked a U.S. District Court to disqualify some--and potentially --of Apple's outside counsel in the ongoing legal battle between those two companies (who like it's going out of style). As , Samsung alleges that lawyers now representing Apple previously represented Samsung, which the Korean company says "taints all attorneys" involved for Apple.