Apple’s brush-up with Masimo a company that manufactures patient monitoring devices, over a patent lawsuit may not be over yet.
In August, Apple launched a “redesigned” version of the Apple Watch’s Blood Oxygen feature in the United States. This came 18 months after Apple started selling the Apple Watch without the Blood Oxygen feature in due to a patent dispute with Masimo.
9to5Mac reports that, in new filings today, the ITC said it “has determined to institute a combined modification and enforcement proceeding” to determine whether the redesigned Apple Watch blood oxygen feature is permitted under the initial ITC import ban. The decision was made following a complaint from Masimo.
Now 9o5Mac reports that the International Trade Commission (ITC) is holding a new proceeding to decide if this solution should also be banned due to the Masimo patent dispute.
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. The government agency responded with a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
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, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a reply brief filed in September in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, supporting its dismissal bid.
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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