"Despite all this, Apple still managed to get a patent on multitouch gestures and continually claim it as their innovation. They filed the patent in 2007. In my opinion, the patent system is really broken."
Apple doesn't have a total multitouch idea patent. This is the sort of widely repeated ignorance that makes everyone think the patent system is totally broken when it's just mostly broken.
I realize that their patent is somewhat narrow and I'm not aware of the full details. But considering the enormous research history of multi-touch gestures, I'm left wondering why we as a society feel it important to give protections to what amounts to a minor tweak to the idea.
Apple doesn't have a total multitouch idea patent. This is the sort of widely repeated ignorance that makes everyone think the patent system is totally broken when it's just mostly broken.