Unfortunately I think that you've been misled by the high-profile nature of all-things-Apple: these patent suits are common practice and as I understand it par for the course in the industry but because of Apple's popularity (in the media) these cases involving Apple are put under a spotlight. Don't confuse this with Apple somehow being an (evil) exception to natural conduct in the industry. Note also that Samsung has infringment suits against Apple. And of course there are many other cases not related to Apple that involve design infringement. This is how the game is played, for better or worse. I don't think you'll find a major company out there that doesn't concern itself with patents and legal action against its competitors when it feels it may have the grounds to do so.

Edit: Hm, I don't want to speak too quickly here, but after looking at your profile I'm guessing that you already have a strong opinion about Apple that I'm not likely to sway. So if you've made up your mind, fair enough. No sense in arguing about it. I just thought I would provide a counterpoint to what seems to be a common misconception about these suits.