A federal jury has awarded an Apple competitor $634.3 million over claims the tech giant infringed on a patent for its smartwatch health-monitoring technology.
Health tech company Masimo filed the lawsuit in 2020, asserting the Apple Watch’s heart and blood-oxygen surveillance technology violated its patent rights. A jury in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California agreed Nov. 14 with all four of the claims it considered.
“This is a significant win in our ongoing efforts to protect our innovations and intellectual property, which is crucial to our ability to develop technology that benefits patients,” Masimo said in a statement.” We remain committed to defending our IP rights moving forward.”
Apple plans to appeal the decision. “Masimo is a medical device company that does not sell any products to consumers,” an Apple spokesperson emailed Becker’s. “Over the past six years, they have sued Apple in multiple courts and asserted over 25 patents, the majority of which have been found to be invalid. The single patent in this case expired in 2022, and is specific to historic patient monitoring technology from decades ago.”
