I see both sides
Though, things like multitouch should be a standard....as what other way should there be to operate a touch device?
Same with a grid layout
These are all imo, obvious implementations of a touch screen device
Apple has not patented the concept of interacting with a digital device using multiple fingers on a touchscreen. When people talk about things and say "Apple patented multi-touch", it's total BS. Of course it is. What Apple may have patented is a specific implementation of that concept, with hundreds upon hundreds of if-s, and-s and but-s ( try and read any patent. They're all like that. The scope of the invention has to be very clearly defined ). For example, "the multitouch patent" you've likely read about doesn't say what I wrote in my first sentence here; it's all about the angle of a user's contact with the device and how to interpret those kinds of things. It's quite technical. They're not one-sentence, kill-the-market patents.
Obvious patents are invalid. Nobody's talking about invalid patents; they're invalid and should never have been granted. We're talking about patents that hold up to judicial scrutiny.
What Google wrote here is total *********. OK, so let's follow this through - I patent something unique (like the rubber-banding scrolling effect or slide-to-unlock), which has never been done quite like that before (or the patent wouldn't stand anyway). I sell my product with these unique twists, and people love it. Now, I'm supposed to tolerate other people using those patented inventions? No.
That's the whole point of the patent system - not to reward innovators directly, but to allow them to exploit their inventions for a commercial advantage, with legal assurance that copycats will be stopped. It's been like that since the days of the first steam engines, and as much as you might dislike the restrictions it puts competitors under, all of the renowned inventors in history have exploited patents in this way, and shut down competitors with them. From James Watt to Nikola Tesla. Using patents for commercial leverage is nothing new.
This is basically Google admitting they don't have the imagination to compete with Apple. Otherwise they'd invent their way out of their hole. It is really that simple.