Thanks for helping spread massive ignorance about how design patents (etc.) work.

If you make a phone with a distinctive design and patent that design, you list out the many features that comprise that design. You do not have a patent on every single one of those features. If someone copies a few of many features they certainly don't violate your patent. OTOH if they copy almost all of them they almost certainly do.

Where that line is varies and I don't know if Samsung is over the line but it's pretty clear that they are way closer to the line then any other major manufacturer.

And as for who this benefits, I'd suggest that HTC, Motorola and other Android vendors will benefit just as much or moreso then Apple.

I suggest you actually go read through Apple's patents before arguing about them. They didn't file a design patent for the entire device. Instead, as you browse through their collection, you see page after page of patents for tiny features like those I listed. A type of modal window, for example:

http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=dLnlAAAAEBAJ&dq=7...

I literally laughed as I read through some of them, because I've definitely unknowingly violated many. It's impossible not to step on the toes of overly broad software patents.

Your comment is even more impressive because you (and/or Hacker News) violated an Apple patent in your comment above. See Apple's lawsuit against HTC - matching text patterns and turning them into clickable actions is patented by Apple.

Wow, I must have missed that while browsing through them. Excellent find.

As a happy user of HTC Android phones, I've been following the HTC case with some interest. After HTC's setback at the ITC, I decided to take a look at the patents in question and was appalled. Since then, I've been banging this particular drum every time these lawsuits come up because it is a perfect example of exactly how broken everything is.

Here's the patent in question (from the USPTO): http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sec...

The word "mobile" does not appear anywhere within it. In fact, Apple's implementation example is a Power Macintosh. If you consider that any sort of mobile device... well, your back is a lot stronger than mine at the very least.

I think I read this on an HN thread itself, but browsing through patents in a field that related to you is not a good idea.

I think the time is ripe for doing some civil disobedience about software and design patents.

I wouldn't bet on HTC and Motorola benefiting. Apple is suing them, too. Granted, those suits are mainly in the US, but if lawsuits continue to go well for Apple I'd expect Apple to keep suing.