The main problem is that patents are handed out all the time, when alot of the times they are WAY to broad. They might go unchecked for a couple years, but a reason that they sue over them is because of the fact that once a court makes the decision of whether or not the patent has legal ground, then that company has won on 2 fronts. It basically wins the right to use that patent against anyone else they choose to.. knowing that it's pretty much approved by the courts via previous court decision. Secondly it wins against the main person they are trying to sue. So while alot of people are disapproving of the way apple is doing it, and i too disagree with alot of the patents they've been granted, i'm quite sure that is alot of the reasons why they do it. And of course we all know that if you can block the competition even for alittle while, you (the company suing) profit (most of the time). Apple seems to have the same approach to phones, tablets and computers, they might not be #1 in the market but they do provide a very good product. While most of us like android over iOS, i don't say that iOS sucks. Both are great products and all the companies should look more at innovation then lawsuits. While someones phone may look similar, everyone knows that one is android and one is iOS, so unless the salesman is being deceitful everyone should know that there is a difference between an iphone and anything else.
Please be civil to each other.