The best (depending on your point of view) thing about all this is that Samsung gets more attention towards their tablets than they probably ever thought they'd get. And (almost) for free.
One would think that Jobs had learned from his own situation with NeXT:
He basically stole the best people and ideas from Apple to form his own company, so Apple sued NeXT. All that happened was that NeXT got huge publicity because it confirmed that Apple was scared of their competition.
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If this was a complicated patent fight, most people wouldn't pay close attention. But it's not: it's over a ridiculously simple line drawing and some equally simple (to consumers) packaging claims. These can be easily comprehended by the general public and just as easily seen to be silly precepts for an injunction.
So Samsung gets free publicity and the underdog status. Apple looks petty and worried.
Worse, Apple's lawyers are forcing Samsung to innovate beyond them instead of simply looking vaguely similar to Apple's current product. Bad move. Apple should be the one innovating, not pushing others do so.
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Apple's moves have also caused everyone to arm themselves with expensive patents, which is going to raise the cost for us consumers. Already $20-40 of a smartphone goes to licenses; that can only go higher.
