No, I think you're missing the point. Intellectual property is a joke and none of this belongs to anyone. All any of this did was waste resources. Also, what a terrible article, I think you should apologize. Stop trying to reply with "No" in every comment and take in what people are saying to start with.
However, I was there as an active industry watcher and commentator at the time, and it seems to me that the main focus of comments here are simple incredulity. I have seen very very few people responding with any kind of citation or reference or anything else.
I do not accept simply argument from authority. The founder of the GNOME project says "no" is not a counter-argument. [1] I am not sure that he was involved in GNOME 3. [2] He then became an MS employee and therefore has (literally) vested interest.
Denial is not refutation.
Furthermore, as I have said, if anyone involved publicly confessed to it, that would constitute an admission of liability.
You're missing the real core point.
Apple sued to protect its features.
So, Microsoft had to do things differently.
Apple: drive icons on the desktop. GEM, Windows: drive icons in folders.
Apple: global system menu at top left. Clock at top right. Windows: start menu at bottom left; clock at bottom right.
Apple: start apps by browsing to their folder. MS: separate app launcher menu.
Apple: no graphical way to switch apps, because classic MacOS multitasked poorly. MS: the task bar, with buttons for each running window.
The point is not the broad general similarities. The point is the differences.