http://www.techradar.com/news/portable- ... nge-944170

Is that one of those cases where it's more about protecting a ridiculous patent or two than anything approaching the real world?

Surely, if as a business or an individual, you invest time and money in an invention, then you have a right, under current law, to protect that investment.

This is Apple’s development model: spend several years developing and honing the hardware (iPad, for instance, has been around longer than the iPhone in Apple’s labs); write first class software and an accompanying development platform; spend millions on a data centre to handle traffic to the iTunes and App stores.

This is its competitors’s model: copy Apple.

Also, a lot of American business is carried out in the courts. They are always suing each other.

short answer yes

I saw the Samsung advert for the new phone and it looks just like an Apple ad. It was not until they closed in on the facia of the phone did you see Samsung on the top of the phone. It looked like an iPhone to me, at a glance.

Not content with being market leaders when it comes to mobile phones, they want to stomp on the competition and stop them from even competing in the market.
Sounds like a typical American bully boy company to me.
Well [LIFTED] Apple and [LIFTED] their iPhones!

Far from being bully boy tactics, these type of copyright/patent cases are common place in the tech industry and Apple have been sued and counter-sued by all unsundry (Nokia being a prime case in point). But, there's no hard feelings in business, in fact Samsung are also suppliers to Apple's iPad as well, making the A4 or A5 processors! That's what most people can't get their head around - this case will be resolved in (or out of) court and they'll move on, no big deal for either side, it's just the media who like to make it into more than it is - Samsung may very well continue to supply Apple with processors and other components and life will go on as usual. Or not.

No biggie.

What he said: http://smithsocksimon.net/2011/04/19/apple-samsung/

Oh FFS. I've read some of those patents and they should not have been granted.

You might as well have a patent for "a smartphone - any device which does anything more than make or receive phone calls"

Not for the first time, the issue here is the ludicrous us patent laws. At the end of the day if you've been granted a patent and someone infringes it, you have to sue. I only hope that at some point a judge says, "hang on, this is ridiculous".

Completely agree - I think it needs much more exact wording.

Interestingly it is only the US that has suffered from the problems of software patents. At least the rest of the world are more sensible.