The US Patent & Trademark Office put on-line the patents relating to the iPhone
The list of the inventors of the device is very long, but Steve Jobs is at the top of it, which confirms his omnipresence on this project. Note that he also holds other patents like that of lthe staircase made out of glass used at the Apple Stores.
This document contains less than 45 points that define the essential characteristics of the device.
It is a certain bet that this document will become a bible that all originators of competing devices will have to plunge into. They will have to find a means of distinguishing inevitable similar designs of a device with essentially the same functions.
[translation by crispin]
