Mixed feelings here. As someone who works in the software industry my take is that the overly loose US patent laws where software is concerned are stifling creativity. OTOH, as a Canadian, having watched RIM get hosed in US courts based on a rather marginal patent claim, I enjoy seeing one of ours hosing down Microsoft in a similar way.
As much pleasure as can be derived from schadenfreude, software patents are just a bad idea. Copyright is sufficient to protect software authors.