piggy backing and just out right copying are two different things. Innovation stops when you try to trick the "consumer" into thinking your "product" is like anothers. Which is what Samsung was trying to due to consumers.
and Yes our field is built on piggy backing "knowledge" wise. Not trying to confuse consumers. As much as i'm not feeling MS phones, thats innovation. Giving the user a *different* experience.
I guess according to "Type Username Here", we should get rid of licensing technology or everything should be GPL'ed. who cares if somebody spent 2 years working on an implementation, somebody else should be able to take what you made and have a product out on the market in 3 months right? most of the time i'm not even for the patent system, but if it wasn't for that system, The PS3/X-box/Nintendo Wii would all be looking the same right now. Don't believe me, go take a look at the system.