Well as in most things, there is room for speculation and interpretation. Your
hypothetical is valid, of course, but so are 100 other permutations which could
be described with at least as much potential for being in-line with reality.
For example, what if Google looked at the phones and told Samsung "Hey, any
company would sue you because you had copied so blatantly." And what if
Samsung looked at Google and said "Don't worry, even if they sue, we can
tie it up for years in courts and make things as confusing as possible. (700
question jury form anyone?) In the end, we will just work around those things
that are copied, and we will have our market share already." It is a cost
of doing business for Samsung (and others).
The worst case scenario for them is that they actually lose in the court, and
all the appeals (not a given certainly), have to pay a fine (assuming they don't
cut a cross-license deal with Apple), and work around a few details that in the
end people will just live with because they have already invested in their
Samsung phone.
To me, that is much more likely, given the fact that this case will go for years
on appeals, Samsung has already established an identity in the space, and is
already working on workarounds to get over the patents at issue.
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