I'm really tired of people calling Apple an innovative company. Apple is a company that polishes existing ideas to a point beyond most other companies, and they are damn good at this. Apple is also routinely rewarded for their skills by being the first to introduce a product in category X that is truly enjoyable to use. Is that not good enough?
As I understand it, the patent system was designed to protect individual inventors and researchers from companies like Apple, who excel at mass-production and marketing. Please correct me if I'm wrong though.
You are wrong. What Apple does is rare and difficult and it takes courage, skill and taste. What Apple does lift the society and makes the world better, and the intellectual property system should protect this kind of enterprise. The patent system is grossly outdated and sometimes very wrong I'll admit, at the same time a company like Apple has to use something to legally protect themselves from being blatantly imitated, unfortunately now Apple can only go to war wielding patents. But as a Chinese seeing the cesspool that is Chinese tech industry, I strongly oppose letting mafia companies such as Samsung (or a Chinese example, Huawei) reign freely. That would be a lost for us all.
As I understand it, the patent system was designed to protect individual inventors and researchers from companies like Apple, who excel at mass-production and marketing. Please correct me if I'm wrong though.