Although im looking to buy a galaxy s3...i think Google should be fined a substantial amount for the Android debacle, yes for consumers we get a very good mobile operating system, fair enough but they blatently nicked ideas from oracle, apple, microsoft , and likely many others with out paying for them, other small companys have had to pay for the rights of software, so why should a mega company like Google come along and get to take what they want, then come out with the 'software patents should be void' nonsense
Everything takes R&D, everything, if a company like Apple for instance spends millions researching multitouch, why should Google or anyone else be able to just take it without contributing to its development?
Whilst there is some merit to everyone being able to use software, there has to be a way of making it worthwhile for companys to actually develop these things to get a competitive advantage, maybe allow the patent holder to have a 2 year exclusivity to their software patent (if they want) but then force that company to lease that patent out to any competitor for a reasonable price, if they can't agree on one then have a court rule on a fair price. Allow the lease to be set for a set amount of time, ie 5 years before the patent becomes open source.
That way companys get a worthwhile competitive advantage from their R&D expenditure, and get a reasonable monetary short term gain, BUT other competitors don't get left too much behind that we get one dominant player controlling the industry based of 1 patent from 10 years ago, keeps things competitive, forces everyone to innovate as its worthwhile, but stops patent hogs and patent trolling as long term patents are in effect worthless as after 2 years they are forced to open them up, and after 7 they go open source.