Software Patents: New Rounds of Legal Actions

In this news we will report about 2 major legal actions launched in USA and based on the strongly criticized "software/IT patent" system:
- Several computer developers and manufacturers using the BlueTooth technology, and among them Apple, Dell or Sony, are currently sued by the Washington Research Foundation. Details are not fully available, and nobody really known the reason for such legal action; it seems to be due to the "patented concept" of plugging peripherals to a computer, such as keyboard and mouse (probably via BT, a technology patented by Ericsson)
- The second story is related to the legal action launched by HP against Acer, for the use of the illegal usage of 5 patents. Among those patents, one of them explain how to boot a multi CPU or Core computer from a single ROM. Another one explains how to detect the CPU loading level to switch it to energy saving mode; another one explains the concept for writing data several times on a HD without modifying the data already stored...
Both stories demonstrate how ridiculous the current US patent system can be when directly applied to software or IT concepts. Such patents are mostly covering concepts, never demonstrated to be fully functional, and often including a large collection of claims, so broad that one could even sue you for inventing a coffee machine if one can demonstrate that you could be plugged to your computer.
Patents are necessary and should be granted to real invention, and the justice should spend more time fighting against counterfeits and illegal usage of patents, than spending their time and energy to discuss if an old concept, never proven to be functional could be the basis of a successful product. It is all about the money.