Apple used their "patent" of the overscroll bounce in the fight against Samsung's devices. Therefore Google and other Android manufacturers have had to resort to the overscroll glow, instead of the neat overscroll bounce.

I personally have to say that Apple won't win anything by patenting something this general.

As it turns out, Apple's attempts at actually patenting this, have failed. The decision, however, isn't final and can be appealed to, which Apple will most likely do.

Apple has recently aqcuired a patent for fading scroll bars, of which you can read more from here.

I am looking forward to more patents like this from Apple, since they very much like patenting stuff that they can later sue other manufacturers, and therefore gain more footing on the tech market.