Frankly, we really think this whole affair is just silly. It's lawyers fighting lawyers, and not a drop of innovation or experimentation will come from any of it. It's just lawyers. All lawyers. No software developers will profit. No application designers will see a benefit from any of this. In fact, most folks involved in even a tangential way will find this ruling makes more work for them.

HTC, for example, is reworking its phones to circumvent the patent in question. There were four patents in total mentioned in the suit, but only one was found to be infringed by HTC. That patent? A patent on allowing phones to recognize a phone number.

Utter insanity. Ludicrous. This is a capability that a simple caller ID box can perform, and has been able to perform since the early 90's. In fact, you can buy home phones with this capability built in, but we don't see Apple suing any of those companies.

Software patent infringement cases are only brought by companies that have run out of innovations. It's as simple as that. With Steve Jobs dead, and its hottest new technology entirely gained from acquisition, these lawsuits around the globe could be seen as a death knell for Apple. Are they out of ideas? If you talk to their lawyers, they'd say Apple invented everything, and has many more ideas to come. Perhaps next year, Apple will patent a method for dialing a phone with only the thumb. Or how about a patent on allowing a cellular phone to make cellular phone calls? That'd be a good one too.

Seriously, this is just ridiculous and out of hand. Software patents are no more useful than a patent on a slogan. Copyright is sufficient to protect software from infringement. patents just ruin the entire space for everyone involved. No good can come of any of these lawsuits. Unless you're a lawyer, in which case these law suits will probably help you put in a second pool. Aren't we all so happy we can help those starving lawyers out?