May sound ridiculous but still needs to be done to protect their identity from less reputable ripoffs that may otherwise just intentionally and exactly clone the design.
To my understanding, trademark law should already "protect their identity" by preventing use of their logo, and copyright law would already prohibit an "intentional and exact clone". A patent differs in that it counts as infringement even if you can prove you came up with it totally independently, having never seen Apple's particular glass cube.
With the large caveat that I'm not an expert on IP law, I do feel like a lot of allowed patents have a net negative value to society.
With the large caveat that I'm not an expert on IP law, I do feel like a lot of allowed patents have a net negative value to society.