The Wynn/QPRC patent was in stone almost 15 years ago..was publicly listed and apple could see it and probably did.....apple is big and smart enough and they have teams to know the patent was there and make a decision whether to act or not.....they probably assumed they would be able to crush the one man band who owned the patent....screw the little guy is their attitude...they prob said "maybe he wont even sue us or doesn't have the money to do so"....that's what apple thinks...better to spend money later than be ahead of it regardless....apple has money to burn....but they lose and pay where they have to....if we had the mona lisa patent almost 15 years ago...and apple wanted to paint a picture that fine..but they should have painted a landscape....but they knew we had the patent and rolled their big boy dice.....this one I hope and think they rolled snake eyes..
your argument doesn't take into consideration what patents are and what they are for...this isn't even plagiarism...once someone patents something they don't have to create it...a patent is currency..its being first to the idea, its America.,,
without patents the guys with the most money could always come late to the party and bury the smart little guy.....its makes this an more even playing field for everyone....if not the money would always win..