Nick Sharratt

The sooner it is recognised that software development is as much art as it is engineering the better. You wouldn't grant a patent for someone saying "I've come up with the idea of putting paint on canvas" or even "I've come up with the idea of using a brush like this to put a shade of paint on a canvass like this in exactly this way leaving a mark of this type" because every single artist would have to spend years checking if anyone had already patented any of the brush strokes they plan to use. 

There are some real innovations in algorithms and a mechanism to protect and reward those genuine innovations is needed (eg encryption schemes and implementations) but at the moment, the people responsible for granting patents seem incompetant - and if a patent slips through and starts being used to try to extort money like this, the claimant needs to be slapped down with punitive damages which could be used to better fund competent patent officers. 

Its possible there is some really clever algorithm which has been directly lifted by Apple here, but unless there's evidence that the work has been 'borrowed', and if Apple have evidence the concept was derived independently / is obvious, this needs throwing out.

i would hate to be a software developer today - it must be like trying to paint with both hands tied behind your back and having to give instructions to banks of lawyers to check and re-interpret before any mark is made on a canvass.