Actually, in the US "first to file" has only just become law, in the past couple of weeks. Up until now us law has been "first to invent".

You clearly haven't been following patent law and the many patent disputes or the general fact that US patent law is broken on an epic scales something no-one of any note disputes. The real problem, of course, is that software can be patented at all (when MS copy-and-pasted Quicktime code into Video for Windows, it was still a copyright dispute).

But, of course, I'm sure you can supply many specific examples of how things work the way you describe. So go on.

No probs: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=apple+patent+dispute

And you point is?