Yeah, exactly: Samsung was FORCED into using the exact same number of icons, arranged in the same 5 rows of 4 icons, in the exact same shape. Also forced into a 4-icon shaded bar at the bottom with the 4 key icons in said bar, and forced into using a near-identical "phone" icon in the exact same place, because after all, a light-green phone icon with a diagonally-slanted depiction of a phone handset was the only possible way to go. Samsung was also clearly forced into using the exact same means of depicting multiple screens of icons.
Come on. Samsung clearly didn't even TRY to distinguish their product, here. This is about as obvious as it gets.
The 5x4 layout seems pretty unremarkable -- should each phone manufacturer have to trademark their own layout (n,m), for nonzero integers n,m? Will small players be forced to adopt button grids like 21x1 if they can't license actually-usable arrangements?
I don't think it's reasonable that a simple silhouette of a phone, used as an icon to represent a phone, is trademarkable. The color is more interesting, until you look at wikipedia and see that mobile phones were using almost the exact same iconography -- phone silhouette over light green background -- at least as far back as 1989:
>I don't think it's reasonable that a simple silhouette of a phone, used as an icon to represent a phone, is trademarkable.
Trademarks are an interesting case, though. You can trademark common ideas, especially if you're the first one to get the trademark for that specific use. They're extremely focused in that they can only be used in a specific way. MS' trademarks on Windows and Word, for example, only apply to operating systems and word processors.
Wrong on both counts. Steve Jobs IS Apple, as evidenced by the rather impressive performance of Apple since he returned as CEO, and Wall St. HAS realized it, and Wall St. is right.
Or do you think someone else is chiefly responsible?
Jobs built a great team, and of course he didn't do it all himself, but he sure makes one hell of a great figurehead. :)
Come on. Samsung clearly didn't even TRY to distinguish their product, here. This is about as obvious as it gets.