Samsung's latest invention looks suspiciously like the Apple Watch

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Samsung Buckle Copy

Apple/USPTO

Samsung had a smartwatch on sale before Apple did, but it still seems like the Korean giant is taking cues from its rival in Cupertino.

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In fact, Samsung submitted several pictures of what looks like the Apple Watch as part of a patent application published on Thursday.

Most of the pictures in the patent application depict a generic smartwatch. But two figures clearly depict Apple's smartwatch, not a Samsung device. Samsung submitted images including Apple's crown and several of its proprietary band designs.

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Samsung Patent

USPTO

The patent, "Wearable Device," describes a format for attaching watch band straps to a smartwatch device. Patent figures - the graphics - aren't really the important part of a patent application.

But the doppelganger drawings in the patent application suggest that Samsung engineers have at the very least drawn inspiration from Apple's smartwatch.

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The Apple Watch is the best selling smartwatch with 72% of the market, according to an IDC estimate. Samsung is second with 7%.

A history of imitation

The patent describes the drawings as "views illustrating diverse shapes, structures, and materials of a first strap portion or a second strap portion in a wearable device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure."

Samsung and Apple have had a lot of disputes over patents and intellectual property in recent years, and of the long-running battles over patents is entering its last act. In 2012, a jury in California found that Samsung had infringed three of Apple's design patents for the iPhone.

Now, Samsung has appealed that $1 billion case to the Supreme Court. On Thursday, several major designers filed a brief with the Supreme Court backing Apple over Samsung.

"Samsung copied many many features" of the iPhone, an Apple lawyer wrote in an earlier brief in that long-running case.

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Perhaps the watch is the next battleground.

Samsung declined to comment.

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