Daniel Belin is right
"Daniel Berlin observed in a Hacker News discussion, the patent claims Apple has made are "worrying.""
I agree. It's extremely worrying -- and ensures that I won't be using Swift until the patent expires.
Apple may have a good record and good intentions. But the history of software patents makes it very clear that having good intentions is not reassuring. You never know what the future holds. Apple may change its mind, or may transfer the ownership of the patents to another company that is less well-intentioned.
With patents (like contracts), the only thing that matters is their legal meaning. Intentions or how saintly the parties involved are mean nothing in the face of the written language.