Macaulay vs. Apple: Why Apple and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are Important in Ending the Case of True Wearables
“This could be a long, drawn out game of cat and mouse about whether they’re infringing on the patents,” Munster said. “If they manage to get the product back on the market, that will be a win for them in the long term.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is currently considering Apple’s software redesign to the watch models and is expected to make a decision by Jan. 12.
One year after its win against True Wearables, Masimo CEO Joe Kiani is turning up the heat on Apple. “This is not an accidental infringement — this is a deliberate taking of our intellectual property,” Kiani said in an interview with Bloomberg. Two guys have their hands in a cookie jar.
“Apple was counting on the Biden administration reversing the decision and the stay by the appeals court to be another twist, so they were likely counting on it,” Gene Munster told NPR.
The reporter and editor, who has covered Apple since 1983, suggested that the company might have pulled some of its watches before it filed its emergency request.
Apple only had a heart rate and blood oxygen sensor in the first Watch it made, but they didn’t add them until 2020. Masimo argues that Apple also hired other former Masimo employees. Michael O’Reilly was formerly the president of Masimo and is now a member of the Health Special Projects team at Apple. Masimo claims O’Reilly was “privy to extremely sensitive information,” such as information about mobile medical products, wellness applications, and clinical data gathering.
“I think it’s advantage for Apple, they have this piece in their favor here, and I think what is more important than their jockeying in the courts is that Apple’s ability to find a workaround,” he said.
Apple will return the Series 9 and Ultra 2 to the US as soon as possible in response to the U.S. Trade Commission investigation of patent violation by a wireless pulse oximeter
Apple said in a statement it disagreed with the decision and would return the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 to customers in the US as soon as possible.
The commission also issued a ban on imports of the Series 9 and Ultra 2 versions, which included the technology. Earlier this month, Apple pulled those products from store shelves.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit pauses the ban as Apple appeals an October decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission that found some Apple Watches infringed on the patents of a blood oxygen sensor made by Masimo. Apple has included the feature on most of its smartwatches since 2020.
According to the fact that Lamego left Apple just months after he joined, he demanded huge budgets and wanted the ability to hire his own engineers without approval. That’s when Lamego went on to start his own company, True Wearables, which Masimo claimed used its technology when developing the Oxxiom, a wireless and disposable pulse oximeter.
In 2018, Masimo filed a complaint against True Wearables over claims its wireless pulse oximeter infringed on Masimo’s patent. The court sided with Masimo and issued a permanent injunction against the sale of the device in December 2022.
