Apple Pausing Sales of Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in U.S. Due to Patent Dispute

[stphammond]

At least I already got a Series 9. When I got it back in October, I traded in my SE 2 from the year prior. If I did the same thing now to get a Series 9 before the ban took effect, I obviously wouldn't be trading in my SE, as now my only backup watch that's not affected by the ban is my original Series 3 Apple Watch (unsupported and left behind on watchOS 8 mind you) from 4 years ago as of Christmas.

 

[Born Again]

I did, apparently for you Masimo is a little guy. Not sure how you came up with that conclusion after reading the facts.

everyone is a little guy compared to apple my friend.

 

[dk001]

Haven’t read all of this yet. Did run into this -

 

[AsherN]

In all honesty I do not think patents should be handed out for final products (e.g., electronics, drugs, etc.). They should be given for the process of manufacturing them. Then companies would compete to reduce manufacturing costs rather than soak up profits from a lack of competition. Imagine how this would work for drugs used in medicine.

Agreed that the patent system is broken. You should be able to patent an end product. But patents should be specific, not describing general methods. And you should then have a fixed period of time to actually produce an end product.

 

[dk001]

In all honesty I do not think patents should be handed out for final products (e.g., electronics, drugs, etc.). They should be given for the process of manufacturing them. Then companies would compete to reduce manufacturing costs rather than soak up profits from a lack of competition. Imagine how this would work for drugs used in medicine.

One of the challenges to the larger sized companies is the regulatory mess that is applied and the cost associated with that. For many, the R&D invested does not mean that company will also do the manufacturing. Contracting or subcontracting is frequently the norm.

 

[dk001]

Agreed that the patent system is broken. You should be able to patent an end product. But patents should be specific, not describing general methods. And you should then have a fixed period of time to actually produce an end product.

How would that work? Most products these days involve a series or sequence of patents. Not sure how an end product only would help.

 

[AsherN]

Why? It's the patent holder's monopoly for the period of the patent. It's not yours to use until that time is up. If it takes forever for an inventor to commercialize something or sell the rights to someone else, it's still not yours to take. The world's patent systems operate the same way. It doesn't stifle creativity.

Because holding patents should not be a business model.

 

[AsherN]

poaching employees should be ok, but if Apple is using Masimo's technology then they should just pay for that.

Why not? And how do you define poaching? Is it just direct calling an employee or does advertising open positions for a particular skill set and offering above market compensation poaching?

 

[AsherN]

Come to think of it, if Masimo is so certain their former employees brought Masimo IP to Apple (the crux of their argument that Apple “stole” IP), then why aren’t they filing lawsuits against the specific employees in addition to this? If they’ve got a slam dunk case against Apple, they’d have a slam dunk case against those employees (and it’s pretty common to sue former employees for violating NDAs and stealing trade secrets). I suspect their case isn’t as strong as they present it as.

That part is the scary part. Not that they own a patent that was infringed. Not that worked products are the property of your employer. But essentially that a company owns your knowledge.

 

[1129846]

Agreed that the patent system is broken. You should be able to patent an end product. But patents should be specific, not describing general methods. And you should then have a fixed period of time to actually produce an end product.

That can be really bad as that basically means unless you are a mega company they can just drown you out.
I also agree the patent system is broken and unbelievable abused by a lot of companies. Apple is one of the many many compnanies that have abused the patent system.

 

[stphammond]

My mom is still running a Series 3, so she definitely needs an upgrade. I found a $179 Apple Watch SE 2 deal on eBay that should arrive no later than the day after Christmas (hopefully it arrives sooner, as I'm going on family vacation then until New Year's Day). The Apple Watch SE is going for $199 on Amazon currently, so I have saved $20 over that.

 

[TundraKing]

Pretty shocked that Apple let it get to this point. You would think they had plenty of time for contingency plans including software, hardware mods, licensing negotiations, etc... to prevent this drastic measure. As this article states Apple had early warning of Masimos threats over 3 years ago.

Plenty of time to deal with it unless Apple dismissed the chance of the ITC ruling against them. If so its a prime example of corporate hubris...

 

[lanceh5]

Actually, smart to pre-announce this if they have inventory left. People on the fence will rush to getting one this week.

Got my watch yesterday. Was not sure if I would like it but it is really nice with lots of features. I like the ability to read it in the dark.

 

[UnknownIdaho]

Isn’t it sweet when billion dollar companies get in a cat fight about another billion dollars…

 

[CodeSpyder]

Why can’t they put out a new watchOS version with the O2 function disabled?

 

[AsherN]

Why can’t they put out a new watchOS version with the O2 function disabled?

Because that could open them to a class action suit.

 

[dk001]

Why can’t they put out a new watchOS version with the O2 function disabled?

Part of the complaint, Maximo said it would require a hardware, not just a software change. That would require new testing and approvals - time.

I wonder how this may affect the next AW?

 

[Aii]

Maybe Apple didn't anticipate that the head of Massimo would risk the reported $60 million dollars in legal fees for an uncertain outcome.

That sort of expense accumulates incrementally over time, and Apple has probably seen other companies, whose talent they hired away, and whose patent protected IP they may or may not have infringed upon, whither away back into the woodwork with a whimper, for lack of willingness to risk that much money to even wage the fight, never mind win the war.