I think you are confusing contract law with patent law. There isn't really anything about the iPod that should be patentable, but Apple should certainly insist (in contract) that their manufacturers not give away their design.
Yes and no. The ipod wouldn't be particularly hard to reverse engineer. Should a third party be able to simply copy the ipod in order to cash in on Apple's brand equity?
Granted that's not really a patent issue either, more like trademark, but in any case, I think the GP's point is a good one: copyright and patent law have their place, just not the way they are currently used.
>The ipod wouldn't be particularly hard to reverse engineer. Should a third party be able to simply copy the ipod in order to cash in on Apple's brand equity?
Yes -- see the history of the IBM PC for perhaps the most famous example.
