This is a fairly amusing collection of images that show the similarities between the Samsung Galaxy products and the Apple iPad and iPhone. There seem to be a lot of ways that the design of the two companies gadgets are overlapping. This is a bit of an issue as the Apple products arrived on the market first.

You may recognize the first image from a Samsung store that was using Apple’s app icons. Samsung later responded that it was removing the icons from its display. This compilation was put together by a Redditor who apparently saw some similarities.

The similarities between these products are being debated worldwide in over 20 cases dealing with both patents and industrial design. In the appeal of the injunction granted Apple against Samsung in Germany, Judge Brueckner-Hofmann, of the Dusseldorf Higher Regional Court had this to say about the comparison:

The court is of the opinion that Apple’s minimalistic design isn’t the only technical solution to make a tablet computer, other designs are possible. For the informed customer there remains the predominant overall impression that the device looks [like the design Apple has protected in Europe].

Regardless of which side you take in the ongoing battle, it does raise some interesting questions about just how different these designs have to be. The iPad may feel like it was an inevitable product now, but before the iPad, tablets looked and worked significantly different.

So how different do Samsung’s products have to be before they are no longer under scrutiny? I think that Sony’s tablets are a good example.