Similarities between Apple designs and Chinese products are not something new, but this time it's different: a Chinese firm claims the iPhone 6 stole its design.

More specifically, Chinese company Digione has a smartphone that looks very much like Apple's new iPhone 6, and could ignite a patent battle with the iMaker.

As MacWorld reports, Digione revealed that it sent a letter to Apple back in September, when the iPhone 6 made its debut, notifying the company that its latest smartphone may infringe on a patent held by Digione.

The Chinese company filed for the patent in question back in January and was granted the patent back in July, according to China's State Intellectual Property Office. This means that Digione received the patent before the iPhone 6 made it to market. The patent in question covers a mobile phone design that looks very similar to the iPhone 6's exterior.

Seeing that Apple went ahead with its iPhone 6 anyway, Digione's 100+ smartphone brand took to Chinese social networking site Weibo to publish the letter it had sent to Apple back in September. In this letter, Digione expressed its confidence that the two companies can solve potential legal disputes with "goodwill."

Nevertheless, the issue remained unaddressed and unresolved, and Digione has now decided to publicize the matter in order to get a "chance to tell the truth."

Digione's smartphone in question launched under the 100+ brand, sporting entry-level specs on board to target the low-end segment of the smartphone market. The handset sports a 5.5-inch display, packs an 8-core MediaTek processor under the hood, and runs a modified version of Android from Baidu. The iPhone 6, meanwhile, comes with a smaller 4.7-inch display and boasts high-end specs and features all around, targeting the high-end segment of the market.

In other words, the similarity is only in terms of design. While there are plenty of cheap iPhone knockoffs from on the Chinese market, this time Digione claims that Apple was the one to steal its design, not the other way around.

Apple has offered no comment in this regards so far, and it remains to be seen how this whole issue will pan out. We'll keep you up to date as soon as we learn more, so stay tuned.