Another day, another potential lawsuit. San Antonio startup WiseWear Corp. will liquidate its assets, blaming a change in Apple’s operating system on a failed round of financing that forced the maker of designer fitness jewelry into bankruptcy Wednesday, reports My San Antonio.
WiseWear describes itself as an award winning boutique engineering and design firm that develops innovative products from “end-to-end.”
The company specializes in the “design, creation, and manufacturing of smart, connected, and beautiful internet of things (IoT) products for consumer, military, and medical applications.”
Last summer, WiseWear acquired Reserve Strap and assumed all of its assets and liabilities in exchange for $505,000 in convertible notes. Reserve Strap held issued patents pertaining to “a battery band that charges Apple Watches through a service port on the watch.”
WiseWear contends that after the band became a viable product, “Apple turned off the port through an operating system change” — thus making “the product unusable for its designed purpose.”
“This Reserve Strap product couldn’t be brought to market because of the fact that Apple changed” its operating system, Ron Smeberg, WiseWear’s bankruptcy lawyer, told My San Antonio. He says this amounts to “an illegal restraint of trade,” WiseWear alleges in the bankruptcy court filing.
WiseWear also says it has potential “patent infringement actions against Apple related to the Apple watch and distress messaging function.”
