Apple suffers another bruising in smartwatch tech clash
Tech giant faces second setback in a month in dispute with Masimo | Patent Trial and Appeals Board denies its request for IPR.
Apple has been dealt another blow in its feud with Masimo Corporation after the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) denied its request for an inter partes review.
The tech giant attempted to challenge the patent at issue—US patent number 10,912,502 B1—back in July 2022, contesting 30 of the patent’s claims.
The ’502 patent, titled “User-Worn Device for Noninvasively Measuring a Physiological Parameter of a User”, is owned by Masimo and concerns the measurement of oxygen in blood using SET pulse oximetry technology.
Masimo’s co-defendant, Sound United (SU)—which became a Masimo subsidiary in February 2022—had urged a federal judge to dismiss Apple’s claims against it on the basis of insufficient evidence.
The PTAB issued its decision on January 24, concluding that Apple “has not shown a reasonable likelihood that it would prevail with respect to at least one of the challenged claims”.
Threat to Apple Watch imports
The decision comes just two weeks after Apple was found to have infringed Masimo’s patent and violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act.
Following a months-long investigation by the US International Trade Commission (USITC), an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ruled that Apple’s pulse oximeter sensor, first released with the Apple Watch Series 6 in 2020 and which measures levels of blood oxygen, infringes one of five patents belonging to Masimo.
The ITC also announced at that time that it will consider whether to implement an import ban on the Apple Watches in question.
Apple has been at odds with the small medtech company since it sued Apple in 2020 for allegedly copying its technology in the Apple Watch, which Masimo had patented for use in its own smartwatch called the W1.
Delaware-based Masimo claims that its W1, launched to the consumer market in August 2022, is the first wearable device on the market to provide consumers with accurate, continuous health data, including oxygen level, hydration index, and pulse, heart, and respiration rates.
However, Apple alleges that Masimo “copied Apple Watch’s patented designs and brought carefully timed lawsuits to try to kick Apple out of the smartwatch segment”.
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