Look towards iOS 5, you could easily say Apple outsourced their notification system R&D to Google. And that is the problem with software patents. Everyone borrows bits from here and there, sometimes there is just one obvious way of doing things, sometimes there is parallel inspiration. As long as peope aren't actually stealing code or intentionally trying to deceive customers, it is a pretty large grey area.
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Look towards iOS 5, you could easily say Apple outsourced their notification system R&D to Google. And that is the problem with software patents. Everyone borrows bits from here and there, sometimes there is just one obvious way of doing things, sometimes there is parallel inspiration. As long as peope aren't actually stealing code or intentionally trying to deceive customers, it is a pretty large grey area.