Many tech companies have used patents in the past to get royalties from each other. Some have been more aggressive than others.

What is new about the Apple case is that they appear to be using patents to completely block competitors from the market, and making a huge amount of noise about how other companies are "blatantly copying" things like slide-to-unlock.

Microsoft have been extracting money from Android manufacturers for a while now, but the public don't know and don't care. If Microsoft were to go around making noise about Android being copy-cats and stealing their ideas, people would be even more angry with them than they are with Apple (being Microsoft).

The argument that often goes around HN that "Nokia started it" completely misses the point of what Apple are doing.

This is true and Apple's case will eventually fade to the background just as the Nokia case did and Microsoft's case(s). If anything, it should be a sign that the US patent system needs to be looked at and reviewed, not completely rebuilt, but rather revamped.