[Popman]

Really a question rather than an argument,but based on that logic, how does every advance in the car industry like engine design that is based off a previous patents not get challenged.

A internal combustion engine from 1950 is after all still an internal combustion engine from 2011 minus all the bells and whistles

I think apple needs to figure out smart phones are as common or even more so than cars and unless they come up with something completely new and radical....these lawsuits seem more like corporate fishing expedition looking for legal precedent to protect their profits

[dirtboy]

I think apple needs to figure out smart phones are as common or even more so than cars and unless they come up with something completely new and radical....these lawsuits seem more like corporate fishing expedition looking for legal precedent to protect their profits

Well, that in a nutshell is what Apple is doing, IMO. They have patents granted in the nineties for stuff that was commonly done in the eighties. I guess Apple hired some smarty-pants patent attorneys who bamboozled the Patent Office into granting patents for what was blatantly prior art, and then I guess Apple sat on those patents until they needed them against competitors. I may have the details not exact, but the big picture is just as you suggest.