Reply #11: No, patents are not "nearly always" awarded. [View All]

Applicants are required to present all relative prior art in detail, and applications are undergoing more scrutiny than ever to try to keep nuisance suits out of court. In Apple's there are nearly 50 examples of prior art cited.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=7,479,949.PN.&OS=PN/7,479,949&RS=PN/7,479,949

The patent covers exactly three heuristics for how the display interacts with the OS, not "virtually all uses of multi-touch". And I don't see why the Android community needs to be pissed off, seeing as Apple launched the entire idea of third-party cellphone apps.

Sometimes development is free and it's a wonderful thing, as is the case with open-source. Sometimes it takes a lot of money, and Apple has a right to protect their investment.