It doesn't cost squat (at least initially) for a company like Samsung to simply copy the work of other people. Which is what they (unquestionably) did. Whether that copying rose to the level of infringement is something the courts are working out.
But who are YOU to decide what is, or isn't, "valuable"?
I recall recently being somewhat surprised to learn that the father of (current GOP Presidential hopeful) Jon Huntsman had made a multi-billion dollar fortune largely on his (patented) invention of the "clamshell" container that holds McDonalds hamburgers. It struck me as somewhat ironic that (Mr Huntsman Sr's undisputed business acumen notwithstanding) that a great family fortune could be build around something that was essentially designed to end up as garbage.
The thing is, it isn't up to me. Its up to the market. And in a world where several billion people eat a hamburger each month, anything - no matter how seemingly insignificant or obvious - that makes it even the slightest bit more efficient, is going to be worth a tremendous amount of money. Mr Huntsman Sr's patent on hamburger boxes and egg cartons ultimately a) improved the world and b) made him a very wealthy man.
Apple works in this world. It works in a world where even the slightest improvement in the way a device handles data, or responds to a user's touch or gesture, can make - or break - a device.
Thing is: They are willing to pay for the ideas that make those devices work the way they do. They hire great artists and software engineers. And - yes - they buy the IP of company's like Fingerworks. And yes, they will take legal action to defend the IP that they own.
If you don't like the current legal system regarding Patents - fine. I don't like it either. But lets not pretend that there are a whole lot of easy answers.
And lets not kid ourselves that Apple is the bad guy here. They aren't.
