“Prof. Peabody” has an interesting response to the AppleInsider article “Chinese iPhone gets Wi-Fi, Apple granted iPhone design patent“:
The article confuses the issue by talking about the bezel.
The patent on the 3G shape, is more of a trademark than a patent, but the patent on the bezel is for the engineering elements of the bezel. The new 4.0 iPhone for instance has the patented bezel, but it’s black not chrome.
The patent on the bezel is important in that it describes a method of holding the glass on and makes the iPhone easy to take apart in that all you need is to loosen the two screws and take a suction cup to the glass.