Samsung filed patent for wearables that used sketches of Apple Watch

Open goal for Apple in intellectual property wars with Samsung?

Samsung used drawings of the Apple Watch when filing a new patent for its own wearable device - at least that is what the drawings would appear to show.

The patent relates to modifications the company has planned to improve the original, somewhat humdrum, 2013 Samsung Gear. The patent details a device with swappable straps and a familiar charging array on the back of the watch face.

Patent number 20160223992 for a 'wearable device' even went so far as to say that the device "may be coupled with the band for fixing through a structure, such as a separated buckle or a continuous integral buckle, through a magnetic attracting force, or through a hooked ring or hooked member".

But the patent filing, which appears to use drawings of the Apple Watch, looks like Samsung has set itself up for another legal clash with Apple.

The patent filing continues: "Other aspects, advantages and salient features of the disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses various embodiments of the present disclosure."

This feels genuinely like Samsung is passing the buck back to Apple and simply inviting readers to take a look at the existing hardware (i.e. the Apple Watch) in order for the great features of the Samsung device to "become apparent".

From slide to unlock to graphene, the patent situation between the big mobile device manufacturers has intensified in recent years.

Samsung, Apple, Google and Lenovo, among others, have all made land grabs to own as many patents as possible for existing technology and those that might prove key to the future of mobile devices.

Amid all these high-level shenanigans, Samsung's chutzpah in simply ripping something off in its entirety is sort of admirable.