According to a new lawsuit filed against Apple, the company has copied several technologies from Masimo and is taking advantage of them to portray its Apple Watch as a medical device while in reality, it is not. .
Apple may face a complete ban on the sale of Apple Watches in the US if its rival in an ongoing court battle is successful in pushing its claims further. Patent infringement charges have been filed against Apple for the use of patented technology in the Apple Watch and the huge revenue it generated from it.
In a recent filing, the global medical technology company Masimo Corp. appealed to the US government to halt the import of Apple Watches to the country. According to the complaint submitted to the US International Trade Commission (ITC), Apple Watch Series 6 has infringed five patents. These patents describe devices that measure blood oxygen levels through the transmission of light through the body.
As it relates to its core business, Massimo claims that Apple unfairly copied its patented technologies. Further, it elaborates on how one of the primary marketing strategies of Apple is to portray the Apple Watch Series 6 as a medical device as a result of its technological capabilities.
“Yet, hidden from the millions of purchasers of the Series 6, Apple warns in the fine print that the blood oxygen measurements should not be relied upon for medical purposes,” Masimo says in the filing, as spotted by Bloomberg.
As part of an ITC complaint, Masimo calls for a halt to Apple’s importation of the smartwatch in question, saying that the public would not be harmed by that action. According to the ruling, the features it provides, such as patented technology, are “not essential to the public health or welfare.”
Massimo first filed a lawsuit against Apple in January of last year, accusing it of stealing its trade secrets. Furthermore, Masimo claimed that Apple used Masimo’s health monitoring inventions in its Apple Watch. At the time, Apple denied the claims, but has still not released an official response to Masimo’s recent complaints.
A report by Bloomberg estimates that Apple Watch sales in fiscal 2020 brought in $30.6 billion. There is a chance that Apple will end up paying Masimo anywhere between $50 million to $300 million a year in royalties as a result of this legal dispute.
At present, the US Patent and Trademark Office is reviewing the patents cited in the complaint. It is expected that Apple’s argument that the patents do not cover new inventions will be accepted once the patent reviews have been completed.
