Apple has asked a U.S. appeals court to overturn a trade tribunal’s decision that forced it to remove blood-oxygen reading technology from its Apple Watches, in order to avoid a ban on its U.S. smartwatch imports, reports Reuters.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard arguments from the tech giant, medical monitoring technology company Masimo, and the U.S. International Trade Commission over the ITC’s 2023 ruling that Apple Watches violated Masimo’s patent rights in pulse oximetry technology. The judges questioned whether Masimo’s competing device, still undeveloped at the time, justified the International Trade Commission ruling.
This is the latest development in the ongoing legal battle between Masimo and Apple in which the former alleges the latter unlawfully incorporated its pulse oximetry tech into the Apple Watch. Apple removed the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 from its online store on December 21.
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 medical technology company Masimo Corp in Delaware federal court, accusing its new W1 line of smartwatches of infringing several Apple Watch patents.
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.
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