How on earth do people patent the smallest of things?
Icons with rounded corners in a close grid? that's patented?!
I don't think they understand how incredibly small a deal this is, nobody's losing money over this nor are they protecting anybody's invention, If I was to design a UI I would probably do the same thing, it's like a standard except you get sued for using it..
Apple isn't protecting anything, they just want a reason to pounce on the competition.