The patent process just doens't make a lot of sense for technology related things. It's a bit like plagurism on a (simple) math problem, really. There's little chance a four-year old would come up with a word-for-word replica of the Gettysburg Address on his own for a given assignment, but ask any two people to solve 2+2, and their work will look pretty much identical. In the case of technology, try to solve a given problem, i.e. recognizing touch gestures, and many completely independent companies will come up with the exact same implementation on their own. That's what happens when there is a "most-efficient" answer. They aren't stealing from anyone, they just both come up with the correct answer. Apparently, being the first to solve it means you are allowed a monopoly on the problem whether the other companies care about your method or not.