Apple Blood Oxygen Feature Workaround Sparks Fresh Masimo Lawsuit

[MacRumors]

Medical technology company Masimo on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against U.S. Customs and Border Protection in which it challenged the agency's decision to allow Apple to restore blood oxygen monitoring to its Apple Watch models (via Bloomberg Law).

In a complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Masimo said that Customs acted unlawfully when it ruled on August 1 that Apple can import watches with pulse oximetry technology – a reversal of the agency's decision from last year – without notifying Masimo. Masimo said it only discovered the ruling on August 14, when Apple publicly announced it would be reintroducing the pulse oximetry functionality through a software update.

The medical device maker claims Customs and Border Protection exceeded its authority when it issued the ruling permitting Apple's redesigned approach. Apple's workaround offloads blood oxygen calculations from the Apple Watch to a paired iPhone, where it performs similar functionality to what the ITC originally judged to have infringed Masimo's patents.

Masimo is seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to block the Customs decision. "CBP's function is to enforce ITC exclusion orders, not to create loopholes that render them ineffective," Masimo said.

The dispute originates from an International Trade Commission ruling in December 2023 that found Apple's blood oxygen sensors infringed Masimo's patents, leading to an import ban on Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models that have the feature enabled.

Apple paused sales in the U.S. for several days before resuming them on January 18, 2024. The Series 9 and Ultra 2 models then went back on the market without blood oxygen monitoring, up until Apple's release of iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1 last week, which shifted the feature's calculations to paired iPhones.

Article Link: Apple Blood Oxygen Feature Workaround Sparks Fresh Masimo Lawsuit

 

[whsbuss]

Everyone wants a piece of the Apple

 

[McWetty]

Once again, the only people that benefit from protracted lawsuits are the lawyers…

 

[Rafagon]

Masimo needs to get a life.

 

[Pitogyro]

Masimo needs to get a life.

So someone steals your life's work and your advice to them is to get a life. OK.

 

[JonathanParker]

So someone steals your life's work and your advice to them is to get a life. OK.

Masimo is putting people’s lives at risk. These health monitoring systems put on to a consumer product like an Apple Watch saves lives. OK.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Masimo a patent troll or does the name of the company the initials for "Mac App Store In My Opinion"?

 

[MNGR]

The ITC has corrected its original ruling.

 

[kiranmk2]

Surely the key question is does Apple's solution actually get around Massimo's patents? If it does then no problem with relaxing the ban. If it doesn't, then another infringement case is looming (with a likely much higher fine for Apple if it looses).

 

[Pitogyro]

Masimo is putting people’s lives at risk. These health monitoring systems put on to a consumer product like an Apple Watch saves lives. OK.

So because Masimo's technology saves lives, it should be stolen and monetized by someone else. OK.

 

[Rachid Vàzquez]

Masimo is putting people’s lives at risk. These health monitoring systems put on to a consumer product like an Apple Watch saves lives. OK.

The feature is retained for those who had it before the ban, and it is no longer listed on the product page for people who purchased after the ban. So in no case are buyers of the watch put at risk by a feature they think they have.
You just don’t know what you’re talking about...

 

[contacos]

Masimo is putting people’s lives at risk. These health monitoring systems put on to a consumer product like an Apple Watch saves lives. OK.

So ...? Apple could license it from them in that case

 

[mka2802]

Masimo is putting people’s lives at risk. These health monitoring systems put on to a consumer product like an Apple Watch saves lives. OK.

yea exactly, it puts consumer life's at risk how about paying companies for their innovations rather than just stealing it?

 

[contacos]

Masimo a patent troll or does the name of the company the initials for "Mac App Store In My Opinion"?

They are not. They are actually selling a lot products

Masimo - Home

Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) is a global medical technology company that develops and manufactures innovative noninvasive patient monitoring technologies, medical devices, and a wide array of sensors.

www.masimo.co.uk

 

[Valve1138]

Can’t Apple just buy Masimo? I know they have gobs of cash available.

 

[Piplodocus]

Can’t Apple just buy Masimo? I know they have gobs of cash available.

Considering how they often buy a company to use some tech, but then never improve it and shut down half the stuff (stuff like Dark Sky or Siri), I think that would be terrible for the medical industry. I doubt Apple have much interest in all the other medical industry devices they make but people no doubt depend on their stuff.

 

[ItsASpider]

Masimo is putting people’s lives at risk. These health monitoring systems put on to a consumer product like an Apple Watch saves lives. OK.

Then maybe Apple should just pay to use it like every other company has to do who wants to use Masimo's technology.

Masimo a patent troll or does the name of the company the initials for "Mac App Store In My Opinion"?

Aah, yes, Masimo, the famous patent troll. We shouldn't lend to much credit to the hundreds upon hundreds of products they have when that runs the risk of infringing on our dear Apple, I guess.

 

[andyadler]

Masimo is putting people’s lives at risk. These health monitoring systems put on to a consumer product like an Apple Watch saves lives. OK.

If someone is so concerned about monitoring their blood oxygen level, a pulse oximeter is an inexpensive, easy to carry around accessory tool. Nobody’s life is at risk because their Apple Watch lacks that feature.

 

[surferfb]

Then maybe Apple should just pay to use it like every other company has to do who wants to use Masimo's technology.


Aah, yes, Masimo, the famous patent troll. We shouldn't lend to much credit to the hundreds upon hundreds of products they have when that runs the risk of infringing on our dear Apple, I guess.

While I wouldn’t call Masimo a patent troll, they’ve reportedly asked for an absurd amount of money (like more than doubling their annual revenue absurd) and refused to negotiate on that number for a patent that many observers argue never should have been granted in the first place, given that pulse oximetry technology already existed long before Masimo’s patent.

That said, if what Masimo claims about the process is true (I.e. CBP is blatantly overstepping its authority) they should sue to get it overturned and I hope they win. We absolutely don’t want government breaking the law to do favors for the President’s “friends”/allies. But this is the first I’ve heard anyone mention that it might be the case, and think someone somewhere would have mentioned that before now (maybe they did and I missed it though).

 

[macfacts]

Can’t Apple just buy Masimo? I know they have gobs of cash available.

But then apple won't have enough money for baseball on apple tv.

 

[TNman]

Masimo is putting people’s lives at risk. These health monitoring systems put on to a consumer product like an Apple Watch saves lives. OK.

Bawhahahaha this is a joke right? They are putting lives at risk over a ridiculous blood oxygen reading? Ha ha ha ha ha

 

[neuropsychguy]

Masimo a patent troll or does the name of the company the initials for "Mac App Store In My Opinion"?

Various lawsuits against Apple over the years have been done by patent trolls. However, Masimo is not a patent troll. It makes many health and medical products, many clinical grade. They are a company with real revenues, real products, and not just patents.

I'll leave deciding the merits of the case to the legal experts, but throwing out the term "patent troll" just because a company is suing Apple is completely unwarranted in this case.

 

[terraphantm]

Masimo is putting people’s lives at risk. These health monitoring systems put on to a consumer product like an Apple Watch saves lives. OK.

Highly unlikely the pulse ox contributed to any lives being saved. EKG may have prevented some strokes.

 

[Jamie0003]

Why can’t Apple just pay them and be done with it? Or is this another one of those stupid malicious compliance greed things they’re doing, who users on certain forums keep defending for some baffling reason…

 

[TNman]

Highly unlikely the pulse ox contributed to any lives being saved. EKG may have prevented some strokes.

A pulse ox doesn’t really save lives at a hospital much less on phone. They are very inconsistent based on the finger, the temperature of the skin etc