Well known technology cooperation Apple has their products taken off of shelves due to claims of stealing technology from the smaller company Masimo.
Masimo, holding patents for pulse oximetry technology, or technology used to measure the blood oxygen concentration, claimed Apple stole their technology through hiring their employees. These tech features can be seen on Apple Watch series 6 and newer.
Thus, through the decision of the International Trade Commission (ITC), an agency that is put together by Senators, Apple was barred from importing the newest Apple Watches. Watches that do not have the patented features were not affected. Though they tried to get president Joe Biden to veto this decision, Biden refused to do so, waiting until the very end of the finalization date, on December 26th, 2023. Masimo reported that they were satisfied with this decision. “A win for the integrity of the U.S. patent system,” said one of their Spokesperson.
Though Apple claims that this will cause “irreparable” damage, they are only estimated to lose 300-400 million dollars from this ban, which is tiny compared to their 39 billion dollar revenue selling apple accessories from this year, with 23 billion of these dollaring being solely attributed to Apple Watches. Apple is seeking to work around this patent with software updates, though Masimo said that this would not work because their patent covers hardware, not software.
Apple filed an emergency request to the US Court of Appeals to the Federal Circuit, a judicial branch of the US government, to have this case overturned, citing that the ITC has multiple factual errors in their case, and that a smaller tech company such as Masimo doesn’t sell enough competing products to be harmed by the appeal. While doing so, they request to have their ban paused during the decision making process. This decision is due on January 12th.
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2 comments:
I think that Masimo is in the right here. In general, I think it's time that big brands such as apple face consequences for not doing due diligence on their "inventions." I personally think that brands shouldn't be able to sell products patented by others, without their consent, thus I think/hope that the appeal is rejected. I'm curious what the verdict will be on this issue, as I think it also affects many other companies in various industries.
source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/26/24015238/apple-watch-ban-response-store-appeal-stay-court
The fact that Apple claimed that this damage was "irreparable" is crazy to me given their already huge revenue and the fact that this ban didn't even affect any other Apple products. The outcome of this case overall (and Biden's refusal to veto it) is also a pleasant surprise given Apple's resources and power compared to the much smaller Masimo, and hopefully the result will have a ripple effect for the rest of the technology industry.
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