Apple, unlike other technology companies that rely on utility patents to protect their innovations, has relied to an increasing degree on design patents in recent years.

By forging the modern smartphone layout first and patenting its screen-centric design, Apple now finds itself in the enviable position of being able to force competitors to tread warily in their layout of smartphone elements.

Before the iPhone, part of the cell phone's face was given over to an alphanumeric keypad. When the iPhone first appeared in January 2007, some skeptics mocked its dark glass face--the dark oily pond, in the words of Apple designers. With a touch screen, the software at work in the heart of the phone would allow to see whatever you wished in its depths, as opposed to being stuck on a standard keypad.

Furthermore, Apple perfected the precision and responsiveness of capacitive resistance screens. Previous touch screens had needed to flex or stretch slightly in response to a human touch to generate an electrical impulse to be captured and acted on by the user interface. The iPhone showed the potential of the new screens by increasing their size, giving them a hard glass surface that responded to light finger gestures, and using them as a showcase for content as well as keys.