Taiwan's HTC Corp, the world's No.5 smartphone maker, said on Friday a lawsuit against it by Apple Computer was not affecting operations.

It's part of business, Chief Executive Peter Chou told reporters at a news conference where HTC launched new smartphones. We need to face it and everyone can talk it through.

Last month, Apple sued HTC, accusing it of infringing 20 hardware and software patents related to the iPhone. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has started to investigate whether HTC has infringed Apple's patents, the ITC said in a statement on its website.

HTC ranks behind Nokia Oyj, Blackberry maker Research in Motion, Apple and Motorola Inc in the global smartphone rankings, according to research firm IDC.

(Reporting by Baker Li and Roger Tung, Editing by Jonathan Standing)

Iphone Blackberry Apple inc. Htc