The Bastard Children of NTP v. RIM

Creative and Apple are having a legal brawl over patent infringement.
Interesting to note that Creative (estimated by ZDNet to have an 11% share of the MP3 player market) struck first, accusing Apple of infringing on a key patent. Apple (with an estimated market share of 77%) struck back accusing Creative of infringing on four patents.

Is this the new competition? Stifling the more successful competitor with lawsuits over vague patents, that perhaps never should have been granted?

Apparently actually bringing something to market just isn't cool anymore. Squatting on IP that you don't actually do anything with and using the legal system to snipe away at your rivals seems to be the order of the day.

You know, maybe I am wrong about this... maybe these are just the bastard cousins of NTP v. RIM, and the real blame lies on the crop oif biz-school grads who came out of the dotcom days, eyes wild with possibility and built-to-flip business plans tucked under their arms.
Yes... the more I think of it, the more this sounds like a throwback to those days.

And that is a foul thought, to be back in that landrush mentality.