For Those Keeping Score at Home

Motorola won a patent suit against Apple in Germany, allowing them to ban iPhone sales (Apple will no doubt appeal).

Apple sued Samsung in Australia to prevent sales of the Galaxy Tab. Sales were briefly halted but Samsung eventually won.

Apple has several other suits against Samsung going on.

Apple won a patent suit against HTC in the US which could halt imports of HTC phones (HTC will no doubt appeal).

Samsung sued Apple in Korea, Japan and Germany, presumably in response to the various Apple lawsuits.

Google purchased Motorola, in large part for the patents, so they could get into the lawsuit act.

Microsoft, clearly feeling left out, sued Barnes and Noble over Android technology.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few, it’s hard to keep up. The entire technology patent system is officially ridiculous.

Other than lawyers, who exactly does this help?