Handheld Linux & the touch / icon interface date back to 2000...
A lot of the interface features they keep fighting over originated long before either Android or the iphone.
I have an old Sharp Zaurus PDA, which runs Linux using a touchscreen interface.
Mine's a 5600, but the first Linux-based one was the 5000, released in the year 2000.
Android is basically another version of Linux for mobile devices.
The first iphone was not not released until several years later.
The Zaurus also had a full QUERTY keyboard, very similar to that later used on the Blackberry devices.
http://tuxmobil.org/pda_linux_sharp_sl5000.html
The patent fights are purely to try and hold back competitors, not due to any genuine, dramatic innovations.