Apple is reportedly in talks with several leading handset manufacturers over their alleged infringement of the company’s proprietary inventions.

In a recently published report, Oppenheimer & Co’s Yair Reiner writes that Apple’s lawsuit against HTC has been a fallout of the discussions that the company has had with handset makers since January of this year.

Reiner writes:

“Starting in January, Apple launched a series of C-Level discussions with tier-1 handset makers to underscore its growing displeasure at seeing its iPhone-related IP [intellectual property] infringed. The lawsuit filed against HTC thus appears to be Apple’s way of putting a public, lawyered-up exclamation point on a series of blunt conversations that have been occurring behind closed doors.

Our checks also suggest that these warning shots are meaningfully disrupting the development roadmaps for would-be iPhone killers. Rival software and hardware teams are going back to the drawing board to look for work-arounds. Lawyers are redoubling efforts to gauge potential defensive and offensive responses. And strategy teams are working to chart OS strategies that are better hedged.”

The decision to take on patent infringing competitors makes great business sense for Apple. The company holds patent rights for several key touch-screen technologies including those for multi-touch input, which is now becoming a norm in the smartphone segment with the launch of handsets such as the Motorola Droid, HTC Eris and Nexus One all of which support multi touch. The fight against HTC, it is said, is to not only counter the Android challenge, but also a way to let competitors play “catch-up with their shoelaces tied“.

This is not the first time Apple has made its intentions clear on patent infringing competitors. Tim Cook, the COO at Apple had sounded similar warnings to smartphone competitors back in January 2009; much earlier than Android handsets began to pose serious competition to Apple.

How do you see the future panning out? Do you see Apple settling cases off-court in return for license fees or do you think Apple will try to curtail competitor growth by forcing handset manufacturers to look for workarounds? Tell us what you think in the comments.