With Apple's latest shenanigans about suing Samsung for copying the design of the iPhone and iPad, and of course Samsung counter suing Apple. And Oracle joining the party by suing Google for infringment on it's Java Technology.

Now we have Google being hit with a $5million fine for infringing a patent related to the Linux kernel and fined $5m (£3.2m).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13168296

.......it's beginning to look like one humongous snowball fight.

I also can't help wondering what sort of impact all this is having on us [the PBC (Poor Bloody Consumer)]. If it wasn't for all this coughing up for legal expenses I wonder if we could be paying less for our devices.

Where does it stop?

It doesn't.. and it's not a sudden and recent development.. and much of the blame seems to be on the horribly unfair and broken patent system. It was designed to promote inventions and development, but it seems to me that it's being used to do exactly the opposite and has been severely abused by corporations to prevent anybody else from competing in the market and to dissuade personal or small business from inventing something new or improving anything if it has even the slightest similarity in the way it works. Worse, in these case, patents are being used to fight what should be copyrights fights.