Sorry to pile on you in particular. No harm meant (so no down-vote from me or anything).
The point is that Apple is a company of designers. They know this stuff. The fact that they have been on a ruthless campaign of patent thuggery over elements of design much more subtle than this and cry continuously and loudly about how everyone is stealing their "intellectual property" makes this incident stand out in sharp relief. Sharp, hypocritical, relief.
Yeah I understand. I wasn't aware of the ubiquity of the design. My original comment was just clearing something up that wasn't related to this at all. I wish I could delete my comment as 5 different people have told me now.
As to the issue at hand I totally agree with your position.
The point is that Apple is a company of designers. They know this stuff. The fact that they have been on a ruthless campaign of patent thuggery over elements of design much more subtle than this and cry continuously and loudly about how everyone is stealing their "intellectual property" makes this incident stand out in sharp relief. Sharp, hypocritical, relief.