Potential Apple Watch Ban Issued by U.S. Trade Tribunal in Masimo Patent Battle

[MacRumors]

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Thursday ordered a ban on Apple Watch imports into the country after finding that Apple violated pulse oximetry company Masimo's patents with the devices (via Reuters).

The ban is now subject to presidential review, so it does not take effect immediately, and Apple can take the ban to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit after the 60-day review period ends. Presidents have rarely vetoed bans in the past.

"Masimo has wrongly attempted to use the ITC to keep a potentially lifesaving product from millions of U.S. consumers while making way for their own watch that copies Apple," an Apple spokesperson said. "While today's decision has no immediate impact on sales of Apple Watch, we believe it should be reversed, and will continue our efforts to appeal."

Masimo Chief Executive Officer Joe Kiani said the decision "sends a powerful message that even the world's largest company is not above the law."

Since 2021, Masimo has been embroiled in an ongoing battle with Apple over several health capabilities found in some Apple Watch models, and Masimo has been pushing to have the models banned in the United States. The ITC decision did not specify which models of Apple Watches would be affected by the ban, but Masimo's original complaint said the Apple Watch Series 6, released in 2020, infringed its patents.

Masimo accuses Apple of having illegally poached Masimo employees and stole trade secrets when developing the Apple Watch. The company is seeking over $1.8 billion in damages and co-ownership of five Apple pulse oximetry patents that Masimo says use its technology.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ended up invalidating all but two of the patents, but the ITC in January said that Apple had infringed on a Masimo patent relating to light-based technology for reading blood-oxygen levels.

Apple is also facing an Apple Watch import ban in a separate patent court battle with medical technology company AliveCor. The ITC issued a ban in February, and the Biden administration declined to overrule the decision, but the ban has been placed on hold while proceedings over the validity of AliveCor's patents are completed.

Article Link: Potential Apple Watch Ban Issued by U.S. Trade Tribunal in Masimo Patent Battle

 

[t0rqx]

Is this the reason the watch has been stagnating for 5 years?

 

[Feek]

There's as much chance of this happening as there is of me becoming Queen of Sheba.

 

[swiftapplefan]

Apple betrayed by their own home country! Apple Watch is banned!




/s

 

[StudioMacs]

I wasn’t expecting an article about a new Apple Watch band in October.

 

[Stiksi]

Apple can afford to pay for the patents with their markup percentage. Good for Masimo!

There's as much chance of this happening as there is of me becoming Queen of Sheba.

If you get a cat, that title should be easy to accomplish 👍

 

[iLuddite]

Like, whoa, man…

 

[WiiDSmoker]

And boy did they patent it!!

 

[krell100]

Infringing on another companies IP is not cool.

 

[rxp]

Piracy is immoral

 

[jayducharme]

Piracy is immoral

Unless you’re in China, where it’s standard business practice.

 

[swingerofbirch]

Just knowing how ruthless Apple is in general, my gut instinct is that they're in the wrong.

As far as being a lifesaving product, the oxygen saturation meter on the Apple Watch is treacherously inaccurate.

I have an 02 of 88-92% at sea level.

I just completed a cross country move where I had to reach altitude of 8,000 feet while being driven (you surprisingly cannot avoid altitude no matter which way you drive across the US but 8,000 feet is about the minimum along I-40; 8,000 feet is also what airplanes are pressurized to).

I had a Masimo MightySat, a cheap back up pulse oximeter, and my Series 7 Apple Watch.

When I wasn't on supplemental oxygen, the Masimo and my cheap Amazon back-up pulse ox would show my oxygen going down to 82%.

The Apple Watch Series 7 continuously showed either normal oxygen saturation or inability to read the oxygen saturation.

It's a junk product not fit for purpose of measuring oxygen saturation and should be off the market for that purpose, unless all you want it to do is show you have normal oxygen saturation. Which makes it just a dangerous gimmick.

Apple sold Masimo products in its stores, and it's very typical of them to bring a smaller company into the fold before stabbing them in the back.

 

[RedWeasel]

Piracy is immoral

Some guy involved with Apple once said “It's better to be a pirate than join the navy”… now I can’t remember who it was right now…

 

[labyrinth153]

Just knowing how ruthless Apple is in general, my gut instinct is that they're in the wrong.

As far as being a lifesaving product, the oxygen saturation meter on the Apple Watch is treacherously inaccurate.

I have an 02 of 88-92% at sea level.

I just completed a cross country move where I had to reach altitude of 8,000 feet while being driven (you surprisingly cannot avoid altitude no matter which way you drive across the US but 8,000 feet is about the minimum along I-40; 8,000 feet is also what airplanes are pressurized to).

I had a Masimo MightySat, a cheap back up pulse oximeter, and my Series 7 Apple Watch.

When I wasn't on supplemental oxygen, the Masimo and my cheap Amazon back-up pulse ox would show my oxygen going down to 82%.

The Apple Watch Series 7 continuously showed either normal oxygen saturation or inability to read the oxygen saturation.

It's a junk product not fit for purpose of measuring oxygen saturation and should be off the market for that purpose, unless all you want it to do is show you have normal oxygen saturation. Which makes it just a dangerous gimmick.

Apple sold Masimo products in its stores, and it's very typical of them to bring a smaller company into the fold before stabbing them in the back.

An actual blood oxygen level of 82% would be life threatening and you wouldn’t be checking it on a watch.

 

[widestload]

Some cunning ploy to drum up sales? "Buy a watch now! it'll be banned next week and the shops will run dry!" 😉

 

[4odomi]

Apple betrayed by their own home country! Apple Watch is banned!




/s

On the other hand, Apple betrayed it's own country years ago, by manufacturing and being in bed with China 😡
Having said that, this is a BS ruling, what are they saying, people can't choose who they work for?

 

[Kiwamu]

Is this part of the Scary Fast event? Scary Fast pulled from the market?

 

[erikkfi]

I guess in retrospect stealing that technology was a bad move.

 

[swingerofbirch]

An actual blood oxygen level of 82% would be life threatening and you wouldn’t be checking it on a watch.

First of all what oxygen saturation is life threatening is dependent entirely on context. I had a portable oxygen concentrator with me. This was during brief periods of time I desatted while not on it and I checked the Apple Watch out of curiosity.

During the ongoing Covid pandemic, people desat to the 60s or 70s and survive (https://www.science.org/content/art...ents-sense-their-alarmingly-low-oxygen-levels). There is a context. It's not just life threatening or not life threatening. Medicare won't even pay for oxygen until you're at 88%, despite the fact that you can have mild cognitive impairment above that.

But what is the purpose of the Apple Watch being able to report any arbitrary blood oxygen saturation?

If it's supposed to just be a novelty for people with normal oxygen saturations, they should say so—there should be some disclaimer that this product cannot reliably report any number below 90% etc.

I measured it while measuring with two other pulse oxes simultaneously and it gave either a number in the mid 90s or said it couldn't give a reading.

They shouldn't be allowed to give spurious readings at dangerous oxygen levels.

How would you know what your oxygen level was unless you checked? It's completely illogical to say, "Well of course you wouldn't trust it if your oxygen was that low." Well how would you know if your oxygen was that low if you were relying exclusively on the Apple Watch?


It's normal for all people's oxygen saturation to desaturate at high altitude, but if your baseline like mine is abnormally low at sea level, it's going to be even lower, which does present a problem. But it can be a problem for anyone. Anyone who travels to 10,000 feet, for example, and is used to living at sea level is going to have at least some slight level of hypoxia.

They used that guy from Modern Family advertising the Apple Watch on what looks like a Tibetan cliff specifically to show it could check for desaturation at altitude, which again is a problem that affects everyone.

He says in the commercial something like, "Why are you checking your blood oxygen level."

The camera zooms out and shows them camping on the edge of a high altitude cliff and the oxygen shown is 98%.

That's unrealistic for anyone at very high altitude no matter how healthy they are. And if the product can't show saturations below 90%, no one should be relying on it for altitude, whether healthy or not, which is specifically how they advertise it with no disclaimers.

Again it goes back to the illogic of what you were saying: That you shouldn't use this product if your saturation is low.

If you take Apple's suggestion to use this faulty product that doesn't accurately show low oxygen saturation, how would you know that your oxygen is low?

It's like telling someone not to use the ECG feature because if you *really* had atrial fibrillation you should be relying on a more official diagnostic test.

The oxygen sensor application just shouldn't exist as it is. It's a gimmick and you're being illogical to say you shouldn't rely on it if your oxygen is low when Apple is presenting it as a first-line tool to check if your oxygen is low.

 

[labyrinth153]

I don’t disagree with it being a novelty. Unless I had symptoms, I wouldn’t even trust the reading from it.

 

[AppleTO]

If their tech is good, Apple should just buy Masimo. Problem solved. Haha

 

[awshucks]

Prioritizing money over lives. Even Marino knows this will put lives at risk.

The love of money is the root of all evil!
(1 Timothy 6:10)

 

[VulchR]

I can't imagine any patent being given for light-based pulse oximetry. Any hobbyist could build such a system, albeit not in miniaturised form. There is an issue about how the US grants patents.

 

[cocky jeremy]

If their tech is good, Apple should just buy Masimo. Problem solved. Haha

Nah. Not yet. They'd rather bury them in court and take over for less money.

 

[gymratjudy]

Just knowing how ruthless Apple is in general, my gut instinct is that they're in the wrong.

As far as being a lifesaving product, the oxygen saturation meter on the Apple Watch is treacherously inaccurate.

I have an 02 of 88-92% at sea level.

I just completed a cross country move where I had to reach altitude of 8,000 feet while being driven (you surprisingly cannot avoid altitude no matter which way you drive across the US but 8,000 feet is about the minimum along I-40; 8,000 feet is also what airplanes are pressurized to).

I had a Masimo MightySat, a cheap back up pulse oximeter, and my Series 7 Apple Watch.

When I wasn't on supplemental oxygen, the Masimo and my cheap Amazon back-up pulse ox would show my oxygen going down to 82%.

The Apple Watch Series 7 continuously showed either normal oxygen saturation or inability to read the oxygen saturation.

It's a junk product not fit for purpose of measuring oxygen saturation and should be off the market for that purpose, unless all you want it to do is show you have normal oxygen saturation. Which makes it just a dangerous gimmick.

Apple sold Masimo products in its stores, and it's very typical of them to bring a smaller company into the fold before stabbing them in the back.

I was in the hospital for 5 days and the hospital oxygen machine reading matched my watch for the most part every single time.