This reminds me of engineers trying to work around patents. I spoke to a guy who manufactures flexible guide posts which can flex in any 360 direction. He has a patent on it, and the flexible part is cylindrical. He said competitors work around the patent by making square shaped posts. Obviously this is not the most natural shape if you were to want to flex in all directions.
(6) As this article says, Apple [un]designs things by "creating the simplest shape possible".
(7) This is a good thing. It leads in very many cases to the best products.
(8) Samsung, more than others, recognizes (7) and so follows Apple's lead.
If so, then the only way for Samsung to be legal, if (5) is past the line of acceptability, is to intentionally put effort into making worse products.
Which would, at the very least, make a Samsung designer's job description an interesting one.