On August 20 Masimo sued U.S. Customs over its decision to let Apple resume selling the Apple Watch in the United States with the blood oxygen feature enabled. Now, the government agency has responded with a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
US Customs and Border Protection again urged a federal judge to dismiss Masimo’s lawsuit challenging redesigned Apple Watch imports, arguing the medical device-maker “cannot circumvent Congress’ prescribed path” for disputing the agency’s decisions, reports Reuters.
Masimo can raise “all the same admissibility arguments” before the US International Trade Commission and, if necessary, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, CBP said in a reply brief filed Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, supporting its dismissal bid. But Masimo can’t use the Administrative Procedure Act to get around that process in district court, it said.
This is all part of an ongoing legal battle.In June 2022 Masimo filed a patent infringement complaint against Apple, asking for a ban on impacts of the Apple Watch. The medial device company claimed that the Apple Watch Series 6 infringed on five of its patents for devices that use light transmitted through the body to measure oxygen levels in the blood. The company said that the tech is vial to its business and that Apple is unfairly copying its features.
Masimo and its spinoff Cercacor Laboratories first sued in January 2020. They accused Apple of promising a working relationship only to steal secret information. The tech giant also allegedly attempted to hire away key employees, including Cercacor’s former chief technology officer and Masimo’s chief medical officer.
However, in October 2022 Apple sued Masimo Corp in Delaware federal court, accusing its new W1 line of smartwatches of infringing several Apple Watch patents, reports Reuters.
The two lawsuits said Masimo copied Apple’s technology while seeking bans on sales and imports of Apple Watches in earlier intellectual-property cases against the tech giant in California and at a U.S. trade tribunal. Apple said Masimo “carefully studied Apple’s IP” during those cases and claimed a Masimo spinoff received confidential information about the Apple Watch.
On August 14 Apple introduced a redesigned Blood Oxygen feature for some Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users through an iPhone and Apple Watch software update. Masimo said that was the first time it learned CBP had quietly reversed course two weeks earlier in an ex parte ruling, despite the agency’s policy that such decisions normally require both sides to be heard and filed a lawsuit against U.S. Customs.
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