Copyright
Your cartoon analogy is terrible. There is something called Copyright which protects artistic works such as a cartoon. Why on earth should Apple, or any one for that matter, be given the right to be the only one allowed to produce something that is a rectangle with rounded corners. That isn't an invention, it isn't an innovation, it isn't anything that deserves a patent. What you are suggesting is that an interior designer should be able to patent a room with a window and off-white walls, and that everyone who has a room that has one window and off-white walls should either be open to litigation or should have to pay some licensing fee should they want to sell their house.
