The problem is you're still failing to demonstrate a causal link between threats of legal action and GNOME3 or Unity.
I was around during this time and early adopter of GNOME Shell (i.e. 2.31.x); there was and is zero evidence indicating that legal issues were even a consideration.
There is, on the other hand, mountain ranges of evidence indicating this was driven by everything but legal issues[1][2][3].