Good points. How much ability does a software company have of dissecting another companies OS? I thought it was quite indepth, thus features like 2 finger zooming could fall under the reverse engineering/stealing label.
None of the Apple-Samsung utility patent lawsuits have ever claimed reverse engineering was involved. There was no need for it.
Like most, these software patent cases are simply about one side or the other getting a patent on an (often vaguely described) method of doing something... and the other company coming up with the same (or similar) solution on their own.
Such coincidental software development happens every day, all around the world. That's partly why many countries do not allow software patents. The US unfortunately does; a situation backed by big corporations who can afford to file and refile applications. This is now escalating to ridiculous heights, with US companies filing preemptive defensive patents by the thousands.
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As for two finger pinch zoom in particular, Apple did not invent that. Not even close, not by a couple of decades. However, they managed to get a patent on some flows like watching for one finger to do one thing, and then doing something else if the code saw two fingers. Which, of course, is what any multi-touch code does. D'oh. It simply points out how inexperienced the examiners were at the time.
That's why such patents have not only been declared invalid by multiple overseas courts, but are now also facing invalidation by the same US Patent Office which granted them in the first place.
