Apple-Masimo battle over Apple Watch features may come to a head this week

A “heated part of Apple’s sprawling legal dispute” with a medical-devices maker over some functions and designs for the Apple Watch comes to a head this week as Masimo Corp. puts its trade-secrets theft case before a federal jury in California, reports Bloomberg Law.

Up to $1 billion could be at stake in the trade secrets dispute, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Tamlin Bason. The 10-day jury trial is set to begin Tuesday in the US District Court for the Central District of California, with the potential for live testimony from Apple CEO Tim Cook. Bloomberg says the outcome could influence how the parties’ broader intellectual-property conflict shakes out, and whether a settlement resolving their many disputes is likely.

In January an International Trade Commission (ITC) judge ruled that Apple infringed on medical technology company Masimo’s pulse oximeter patent when it launched Apple Watch models that use light sensors to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood.

This is part of an ongoing legal brouhaha between the two companies. Apple sued medical technology company Masimo in Delaware federal court in October 2022 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.

In June 2022 Masimo filed a patent infringement complaint agains the tech giant and is asking for a ban on impacts of the Apple Watch. The medical device company claims that the Apple Watch Series 6 infringes on five of its patents for devices that use light transmitted through the body to measure oxygen levels in the blood. The company says that the tech is vial to its business and that Apple is unfairly copying its features.

In September 2020 Masimo accused Apple of trying to delay a legal fight over allegedly stolen blood-oxygen monitoring technology in the Apple Watch Series 6 so it could gain a more dominant share of the smartwatch market. Blood-oxygen monitoring is a key feature of the latest Apple smartwatch.

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.

In January’s ruling, the judge concluded that four other patents at issue weren’t infringed. MacRumors says the ITC will now consider whether to implement an import ban on Apple Watch models that include the blood oxygen monitoring feature with the final determination expected to be completed by May 10.

Masimo is an American manufacturer of noninvasive patient monitoring technologies based in Irvine, California. The company sells more pulse oximetry to hospitals than any other company.