I've posted this before, but what the hell. Everyone with common sense can see Samsung was imitating the iPhone was recent releases.
Imitation is a necessary aspect of fair competition. Without it competitors would be forced to engage in conscious avoidance of competing designs, which I generally see as an overly burdensome thing. I think our IP-centric culture has blinded us to the fact that human progress owes a great deal to people imitating and even duplicating what others have done in the past.
There is imitation and the the is what Samsung did, but you knew that. I find it hard to believe that you are that misinformed.
"Also, note that Apple is only suing Samsung for producing a device that looks a lot like the iPhone in many more ways than just a rectangular icon grid."
Such as, say, the phone's shape?
Apple isn't suing Google over the Android UI, just Samsung for making the Android UI look more like the iPhone UI than other Android phones.
Which particular aspects of the iPhone UI do you think should be owned exclusively by Apple? If Apple were to sell its UI as a product (just the UI, not the operating system), what would the sales brochure look like?
Good thing you were able to find a Samsung phone that doesn't look like an iPhone, rather than looking at every news article about the suit. Like this one. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/yowza-apple-hits-samsung-with-lawsuit-over-iphone-clones/12360
Too bad Palm is sort of out of business. They came up with the buttons-below-the-touchscreen concept that's been copied by just about every touchscreen-enabled device since 1997.
You mean, like this pre-Palm device? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_Newton_MP100.jpg
The fact that the entire mobile developer world is now doing Android IS the reason Microsoft has been reduced to this humiliating desperation.
Wha? When did Android take over "the entire mobile developer world"?
After Goliath's defeat, giants ceased to command respect. - Freeman Dyson