Yeah but the average person I'm sure doesn't follow tech news as carefully as you or me - and doesn't get worked up about this sort of stuff either. Any damage to Apple's reputation will be negligible, wouldn't you think?
Customers will become aware of this more and more, and Apple's trials are further helping it. It is a slow process, but it happens. Microsoft also seemed invincible once but they lost the goodwill of developers and customers over the years.
I don't think this is the awareness that Apple's competitors want. What Joe SixPack heard this week in the news is that Samsung got its ass kicked by Apple for copying. J6P doesn't understand prior art, voir dire, trade dress, etc. They just know that Samsung is currently on the hook for $1 billion. This makes Samsung look bad, and Apple look good.
Thinking that even 1% of the populace understands patent law, much less how the US legal system functions is going to leave you disappointed. No matter how Samsung tries to spin this, no matter how many articles appear on Groklaw or HN, this is a bad PR scene for Samsung.
