Robert Kearns was the big example there, once he showed off his product all the automakers just started manufacturing and installing them in cars without paying him a dime, when he sued them they argued that the mechanism was an obvious assemblage of existing parts, he won.

Apple takes these features because they are good features, and new and innovative functionality is expected of every new device they put out or there is no incentive to upgrade, same as the car companies.

But the lesson to take from his story is that simple effective ideas are a dime a dozen, and arent worth anything if you cant protect them or bring them to market, this is seen very often in software development, there are tons of tiny apps and even more concepts for apps out there, but they are only ever going to be used if they are part of a larger feature rich package like iOS