Charles Duhigg and Steve Lohr, continuing the great 2012 New York Times tradition of framing a criticism of the technology industry as a judgement against Apple:

The evolution of Apple into one of the industry’s patent warriors gained momentum, like many things within the company, with a terse order from its chief executive, Steven P. Jobs.

And a yarn is then spun in which a cabal of Cupertino inventors/samurai train themselves, behind closed doors, to wield the mighty patent and use it for the forces of evil.

Oh, and there’s this (compressed to expunge some backstory):

In March 2010, Apple sued HTC, a Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer that had partnered with Google. […]

It was one of seven major smartphone and patent-related lawsuits Apple has initiated since 2006. […]

Over the same period, Apple itself has been sued 135 times, mostly by patent trolls interested in its deep pockets.

You know, patent trolls. Forget about them, though, because Apple are the real patent assholes stifling innovation.

They have to be, otherwise the whole “iEconomy” moniker doesn’t make any sense. There has been a lot of great reporting this year under that title, but sometimes it feels as though The Times reportes put in extra elbow-grease to be critical of Apple first, critical of the industry second. How can trolls be brushed under the carpet in an article examining how shitty the patent system has become?