Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I read a quote from the CEO saying he was open to giving a license to Apple but only if Apple lets Masimo help improve the blood oxygen function on the Apple Watch. In other words, he wants more than just a check from Apple for the license.
I can't find any quote from Kiani saying he is open to "licensing" the tech. In everything I've read, he seems to very carefully avoid the term "licensing". He mentions "help" and "dialogue" quit a bit though.

So I agree. I think he wants a supplier deal or some other colab.
 
I don't understand why people think Apple is unwilling to pay for patent use. Just like every big tech company, they do it all the time. The only time you hear about it is when the two parties can't come to some agreement.

yeah, the "Apple stole" and "Apple refuses to pay" make zero sense for anyone who will take the time to think this through. MacRumors is simply filled with a whole contingent of people who are looking for any opportunity to bash Apple. It's disappointing.
 
That's not actually their "consumer" watch.

The Masimo "Freedom" watch has been announced, they are taking pre-orders, but it's not yet available:

https://www.masimoconsumer.com

For some reason, that link doesn't work off of MacRumors. Here's the device:

View attachment 2337766
Doesn’t really matter. No one here (or pretty much anywhere) is going to be buying either of them. It’s just a future discontinued watch that they are releasing to justify their argument.
 
so the appeals court ruled in favor of the ITC ... so what are Apple's options?
a. stop selling AW9 and Ultra 2 all together
b. apply their "fix" which basically removes SpO2 altogether

in my mind it's b.
Edit: there is c. Settle with Masimo

But this is far from over, Apple will now focus on getting the remaining 2 patents invalidated while also working on non-infringing sensors/algorithms for the next gen watches

You forgot D.

Masimo's W1 watch and their upcoming consumer watches are both stated by Apple to violate Watch patents. And they gained the information necessary to violate the patents during their lawsuit against Apple. So I suspect some "mutually assured destruction" that will result in some VERY cheap cross-licensing.
 
I don't understand why people think Apple is unwilling to pay for patent use. Just like every big tech company, they do it all the time. The only time you hear about it is when the two parties can't come to some agreement.

This is just rumors, but since this is MacRumors I guess that is ok, But I've heard that Masimo is asking for $100 a watch, that is crazy, obviously. But I think the bigger issue is the other rumor, that Masimo is not interested in a licensing deal. What they really want is a supplier / contributor deal. Kiani said they want to "work with them to improve there product". He did not say, we are willing to license the tech.

Additionally, the claim that no one at Apple has spoken to anyone at Masimo in years is simply too absurd to be believed. Kiani said "he" has not talked to them in years. The idea that no one at Apple has offered them some insulting low deal, like six months of AppleTV+ and a fifty dollar store gift card or whatever the equivalent is in patent licensing is simply not possible. Kiani said what he wants is an apology and an honest dialogue, again no mention of a licensing deal.

It is also worth mentioning that Masimo's case has continued to get weaker at nearly every stage. There claims about employee poaching (as if hiring an engineer who worked for another company is somehow illegal) didn't make it anywhere and then the majority of there patents were invalidated. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, they have two patents in question that have not been invalidated, yet. It is safe to say that Apple have a fair amount of experience in protecting and attacking patents, someone at Apple must feel pretty good that the remaining patents are not as strong as Kiani and Masimo's team seems to think.

Not hard to believe. Tim Cook admitted he ghosted Qualcomm's CEO during settlement discussions in 2018. Apple was literally using Qualcomm chips and unwilling to pay.

When Apple is on a warpath, they don't talk and they don't pay. Apple only talks to lawyers.

Asking for $100 or $1,000 doesn't matter. Masimo owns the patents. They're under no obligation to share.
 
Masimo is a greedy mf. He treats his employees like s*** and is obsessed with going after Apple. Look at the employee reviews on Glassdoor and see how bad of a place it is to work there!! 3.1 out of 5 stars
 
Not hard to believe. Tim Cook admitted he ghosted Qualcomm's CEO during settlement discussions in 2018. Apple was literally using Qualcomm chips and unwilling to pay.

When Apple is on a warpath, they don't talk and they don't pay. Apple only talks to lawyers.

Asking for $100 or $1,000 doesn't matter. Masimo owns the patents. They're under no obligation to share.
100% agree that Masimo is not obligated to talk or share. And yes, Tim Cook said "he" ghosted Qualcomm's CEO. But again, the idea that no one at Apple was talking to anyone at Qualcomm is simply not possible. Additionally, I think it's been documented that there was a fairly continuous line of communication between the companies (the vast majority taking place with council, but nothing like what was presented by Cook at the time or Kiani now). I may be incorrect about that detail, but I think that lawyers have to let the court know when they are "talking" to each other and there were records indicating there was at least some "talking" happening. Again, I might be remembering it wrong. Also, it might not be a requirement to inform the court.
 
it's basically a patent troll. apple wouldn't drag it out if I was open and shut. and it's the international court that generally hates American companies.
 
So what's it gonna be Apple? Are you gonna actually pay Masimo? Or are you actually gonna sell your customers a gimped Apple Watch?
or a 3rd option sell the gimped watch and end up still paying Masimo a **** ton of money dating back to every watch sell since version 6. Or settling paying Masimo a lot of money and then having to disabled the feature on every watch since version 6 and then paying out the class action.
 
This assumes, of course, that Masimo is being reasonable in its ask. The device my doctor uses can be bought on Amazon for $12. The rumor I heard was that Masimo is asking $100/watch.
depends on the normal agreement. Could be they get a cut of the entire sell of the product. In this case near a 100 per watch compared to the cheap one on amazon. Remember apple cut off communcation and refused to do talks. Most of the other oxygen people products are in partnership with Masimo and they pay Masimo royalities. Could also be on those cheap devices Masimo has a lot of other IP trading going on reducing it. Apple might not have anything to bring to the table.
 
100% agree that Masimo is not obligated to talk or share. And yes, Tim Cook said "he" ghosted Qualcomm's CEO. But again, the idea that no one at Apple was talking to anyone at Qualcomm is simply not possible. Additionally, I think it's been documented that there was a fairly continuous line of communication between the companies (the vast majority taking place with council, but nothing like what was presented by Cook at the time or Kiani now). I may be incorrect about that detail, but I think that lawyers have to let the court know when they are "talking" to each other and there were records indicating there was at least some "talking" happening. Again, I might be remembering it wrong. Also, it might not be a requirement to inform the court.

It's been three years since Masimo filed suit against the Apple Watch 6. The time for talking is long over.

Why do you think it's not possible? Apple has nothing to gain from their perspective. Apple has a $1B annual legal budget so they can push things to the limit and take risk. That's literally what Apple's former top lawyer said their strategy was. Overwhelm the opponent whenever possible.
 
Anyone got the details on why the ban was lifted by the U.S. Court of Appeals?
If Court of Appeals Masimo more likely to prevail on appeal it would lift the stay to prevent/limit damages to Masimo. If it thought Apple would most likely prevail in would have kept stay in place.
 
Looks like Apple either needs to disable the Blood Oxygen sensor or pay Masimo for their patent.
Can't apple and its trillions just pay for the patent? I know it'd be expensive but apple has almost infinite money.
 
I can't find any quote from Kiani saying he is open to "licensing" the tech. In everything I've read, he seems to very carefully avoid the term "licensing". He mentions "help" and "dialogue" quit a bit though.

So I agree. I think he wants a supplier deal or some other colab.
A license is just a contract. Any deal would have to involve a license agreement to protect Apple from future patent infringement claims. And likely an exclusive license so Apple isn't competing with any other Masimo collaborators in the future.
 
Masimo is not a patent troll. They make a real products and a huge player in that market. This is more of a case of a case of Apple stealing IP and not paying for it.
Masimo didn't file the two patents in question until after Apple released the S6/U1. Then Masimo went about creating their own watch so they could go to the ITC and say Apple was a direct competitor. It feels like troll-like behavior even if they are not a troll in the traditional sense (non-practicing entity or NPE).
 
Looks like Apple either needs to disable the Blood Oxygen sensor or pay Masimo for their patent.
Pretty much.... I wish they would have just partnered with Masimo in the first place rather than trying to poach employees who thought they could "side-step" the Masimo patents. Masimo is pretty innovative in the field of non-invasive health sensors. Had Apple partnered with or acquired Masimo then I think the Apple Watch could be an even better product today.

It does not sound like Masimo is trying to "take down" Apple like Epic Games was doing -- they simply want to be paid for their inventions. Further, Masimo is no patent troll. Masimo does not compete with Apple since they sell to healthcare providers (B2B), not consumers (B2C) -- so I would think a partnership would work here for Apple -- and certainly Apple can afford to pay a partner for exclusive rights to their patents in consumer products.
 
Masimo didn't file the two patents in question until after Apple released the S6/U1. Then Masimo went about creating their own watch so they could go to the ITC and say Apple was a direct competitor. It feels like troll-like behavior even if they are not a troll in the traditional sense (non-practicing entity or NPE).
Having now done more reading and research...

The Masimo W1 watch has 19 reviews on Amazon. 18 of those reviews were done by people who were given a free watch in exchange for their review. The 1 review that was a verified purchase gave it 1 star. Some lowlights? The "watch" doesn't do anything other than heavy data dumps of health information. It does no analysis. It tells the wearer nothing. It has a watch, but no notifications, or really anything else that a typical smart watch does. And what cracked me up most? One reviewer said it takes several hours to charge, and that you have to charge it twice a day. All the reviews came after December 2023. AND...the watch is listed as "currently unavailable." So, they sold out by giving away 18 watches and selling 1 watch. And Masimo promises in court documents to produce their consumer watch, the Freedom, by 1st Quarter 2024. We'll see. I doubt it.

The Patents in dispute expire in 2028.

Apple could bypass the ITC ruling if they were to manufacture the watch in the USA.

There is so much underneath this case. It's amazing the Press has done nothing with it.
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.