Samsung Gear came to market in 2013 and it offered a camera and speaker built right into its one and only band and clasp design. After Apple introduced the Apple Watch with multiple band options and its quick and easy install mechanism for changing the bands, Samsung set out to copy that idea as quickly as they possibly could. In a patent application that surfaced today at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office titled "Wearable Device," they discuss their new "exchangeable" strap mechanisms. What struck me was that a great number of their form factor patent figures were actually Apple Watch designs showing that indeed they set out to copy Apple's design – even if they changed the method enough not to get sued. But it's clear that the Samsung engineers were either inspired by Apple's ingenuity or that their bosses handed them pictures of what they wanted their engineers to copy. It's undeniable as you'll see in the 12 patent figures presented below.

Do these Samsung Patent Figures Look Familiar?

The Samsung patent, first discovered by Patently Apple today, presents patent figures 10a – 10c and 11a – 11f that are clearly Apple Watch designs with its classic backside charging mechanism that Samsung doesn't incorporate and various Apple band styles. Nowhere in the patent do they reference the designs as being from Apple.

And just in case there are skeptics out there that think I'm making this up because I'm an Apple site, check out the patent and patent figures for yourself here.

Mashable showed in a 2015 video that Samsung adopted a removable band mechanism it didn't have with the original Gear smartwatch design in 2013.

Samsung's patent notes that "The band for adjustment 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." Hmm, I wonder where they got that idea from?

Once again, Samsung is caught trying to copy an Apple idea and even using Apple patent design figures and not clarifying that they're from Apple. Although it's shameful and sleazy, it's certainly not surprising.

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