It’s inevitable: some full touchscreen phones are going to look like other full touchscreen phones. Just ask LG (066570), which saw its LG Prada design from 2006 resurrected when Apple (AAPL) unveiled the iPhone 4 in 2010. Samsung (005930) has repeatedly been accused by Apple, and bloggers, of stealing Apple’s protected smartphone and tablet designs, but newly uncovered court documents tied to the Apple vs. Samsung trial that began in San Jose, California this week suggest that might not be the case.
The image above is taken from a brief filed with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. It shows a number of smartphone designs that Samsung toyed with, and it’s true, many of them do resemble Apple’s iPhone. There’s just one problem: Samsung created these designs in early 2006, and Apple’s iPhone wasn’t unveiled until January 2007.
The filing also reveals that Samsung was working on user interface designs similar to the one made famous by iOS (and subsequently, Android) in 2006 as well.
