[caleb]

Can you provide some more detail on how Apple "copied a lot of features (Notification Drawer, Interactive Lockscreen, Social Network integration, etc.)"? None of these features seem to appear, at least explicitly, on my iPhone 4 with iOS 5.

[glenra]

Assuming you're current on OS updates, swipe down from above the top of the screen to view the Notification Center. You can configure what shows up there via Settings:Notifications. Apple's original UI for presenting notifications was kind of terrible, the new way is better, and the new way was probably inspired by the android way to do it.

Interactive Lockscreen: seems like a miss. People with jailbroken iPhones or who have installed certain hacky third-party apps (eg, an app called "Lock Screen Weather") get an interactive lockscreen - otherwise the only thing from Apple that seems vaguely related is the "swipe up for photos" shortcut.

Social Network: Apple added "twitter integration" with iOS5, but you wouldn't notice that unless you use twitter. If you do, the main thing that changed was that you no longer have to log into twitter explicitly all the time, and there is a "tweet" option added to various app panels. It's not a particularly significant feature and it's questionable whether "copied from Android" is a fair characterization.

[nitrogen]

It's not a particularly significant feature and it's questionable whether "copied from Android" is a fair characterization.

Of course, one could say the same thing about many of the things Apple is suing over.

[glenra]

I think you're missing some context. In the case of that one feature if Apple HAD "copied from Android" it would probably have been better than what they actually did. What Apple did (in iOS 5) was integrate with ONE specific social network, Twitter, working directly with that company to accomplish this. What Android did if I understand correctly was make a general service available for sharing to things like social networks generally. I don't think Apple has (yet) copied that feature at all. (I could be wrong, because the parent poster's comment was vague, made in passing, and not since elaborated.)

I don't think it's questionable at all that Samsung copied its "trade dress" from Apple, just as it had earlier copied from Blackberry. Or that they explicitly copied lots of specific features from Apple.

(Though I agree that we might be better off with less protection against that sort of copying. The world would not be a better place if McDonald's had been able to patent the idea of a drive-through window (or buy the patent for it from someone else) and then charge all other fast-food restaurants an arbitrary fee to license the patent portfolio.)