Apple Wants More Damages, U.S. Sales Ban Against Samsung

I understand that the USA is a huge market, but it seems like the rest of the world is catching up in a lot of ways (centers of excellence in science and R&D in the Orient, India, and Europe; also: so-called 3rd world countries getting larger highly educated and motivated workers; growing affluence in previously 3rd world countries == they become better customers).

Apple has not been doing as well patent trolling outside of the USA.

When I explain the Apple patent problem to non-technical family and friends I usually couch it by describing how we in the USA are losing our tech edge and Apple's behavior will help speed up our decline relative to the rest of the world. In other words, don't be proud of Apple as a USA company, but rather understand how their actions will hurt our country.

On a more positive note: I now view myself more as a citizen of the world rather than a citizen particular tax jurisdiction, like the USA. I believe that open source technology and products based on open source and open standards will eventually win out. The world should be a level playing field, and people and companies should prosper based on the quality of their work, skills, and general productivity. A lot of people I know believe that our world history has entered a phase of continuous, never ending series of wars that make the world's elite even wealthier. Contrary to that, I believe/hope that there will be enough people (and yes, even corporations) that do the right thing and probably things will turn out well for more people around the world.

Sorry for the off topic rant.

Then again, if they know so much and are so key to Apple maybe they are a huge competitive threat.

They seem to be trying to create a monopoly - implicitly making an effort to stop companies both big and small - start-ups from innovating. They seem to fear competition.

This patent issues among all these big companies is starting to hurt a lot.