NEW YORK, July 10 (UPI) -- NTP, Inc., has filed a federal patent infringement lawsuit against some of the leading manufacturers of smartphones.

NTP holds a number of patents related to smartphone technology and is suing over eight of them, which are related to wireless e-mail delivery.

The Wall Street Journal said Saturday the companies being sued in Virginia were Microsoft, Apple, Motorola, Google, LG Electronics and HTC.

While NTP does not actually manufacture phones, it owns and has aggressively enforced the patents it holds and are used by other companies. NTP was formed by Thomas Campana, an early developer of wireless e-mail who died in 2004.

"Use of NTP's intellectual property without a license is just plain unfair to NTP and its licensees," company co-founder Donald E. Stout said in a statement. "We took the necessary action to protect our intellectual property."

The Journal said NTP has licensing deals with Nokia and Good Technology, Inc. It also recently received a $612.5 million settlement from Research in Motion and has lawsuits pending against major wireless telecoms including Verizon Communications, AT&T and Sprint Nextel.