After a court decision in the USA, Apple is threatened with an import ban for the Apple Watch. Since the watch is manufactured exclusively abroad, this would be tantamount to a sales ban. All models currently sold by Apple are affected. The reason is a patent infringement on the built-in blood oxygen sensor. This was complained about by the company Masimo, a large US supplier of medical technology devices.
The legal battle dates back to 2020, when Apple released the Apple Watch Series 6, which included a blood oxygen measurement feature for the first time. According to Masimo, Apple is infringing on its patents related to methods of measuring heart rate and blood oxygen saturation using photometric techniques. After initial cooperation talks in 2013, the iPhone manufacturer suddenly broke contact and poached two important employees within a year, including a former supervisor at Masimo who had access to company secrets. A few years later, the function appeared in the Apple Watch. Masimo insinuates that the talks apparently only served to find out who has what knowledge in the company.
Masimo boss hands out
A judge from the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) now followed this argument. He ruled that Apple had infringed one in five patents and thus violated trade laws, as Masimo reports. Apple itself filed its own lawsuits against Masimo in the course of the dispute and also accused the company of patent infringements.
Masimo CEO Joe Kiani sees his company’s legal success as exemplary: “Apple has similarly violated other companies’ technologies, and we believe today’s ruling exposes Apple as a company that is taking other companies’ innovations and re-imagining them packaged,” he said, according to the press release.
Apple pushes for review
“We disagree with today’s decision and await a full review by the Commission,” said an Apple spokesman the US news agency Reuters. The import ban that Masimo is now seeking is the subject of a separate proceeding at the ITC. The US federal agency has set itself a deadline of May 10, 2023. Until then, she wants to decide on the plaintiff’s request from a published document.
(mki)
