French digital security group Gemalto said Monday it had filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the United States against Google, HTC, Motorola and Samsung on grounds they had used Gemalto innovations in the Android operating system.

Gemalto filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against the aformentioned companies for use of Gemalto's innovations in the Android operating system, Dalvik virtual machine and associated development tools and products. The patented technologies in the lawsuit were developed in the 1990s at Gemalto's research and development facilities in Texas, Gemalto claims.

"Gemalto?s patented technologies are fundamental to running software, developed in a high level programming language such as Java, on a resource constrained device," said a Gemalto spokesperson. "Gemalto is recognized as a pioneer and ground-breaking contributor to the JavaCard - one of the devices for which the patented technologies were conceived."

"This lawsuit is necessary to protect our investment in innovation," he added. "The technologies we develop and associated intellectual property rights are essential to Gemalto's future. It is our commitment to our employees, customers, partners, and shareholders to protect those innovations from companies who ignore Gemalto's intellectual property rights."

Smart-phones running on the Android system have dominated US sales in the last six months, eclipsing Research in Motion's Blackberry device and Apple's iPhone, according to a recent study by the Nielsen Institute.

Gartner last month estimated that Android, launched in late 2008, would this year become the second most-widely used system in mobile telephones the world over.