Lawyers getting rich(er) off of frivolous lawsuits.
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 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 US Trade Tribunal in Masimo Patent Battle
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Potential Apple Watch Ban Issued by U.S. Trade Tribunal in Masimo Patent Battle
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Apple said:
Apple's spin machine at max RPM
If Apple did violate a patent, then what does it matter if the product ban results in keeping a potentially lifesaving product off the market for millions of U.S. consumers, or that Masimo will use their patent to make their own watch? That's a red herring.
Why can't/doesnt Apple simply pay Masimo to license the patent?
Don't tell my wife. Blood Oxygen monitoring was the #1 justification I cited for jumping on the Apple watch train this year with an S8
We have a wood burning stove as our primary source of heat in our Amish-built farmhouse and the air quality is sometimes lower than it could be. I have a touch of COPD and was wanting to keep an eye on blood oxygen, particularly at night while asleep.
So thanks for that, I will pick up a stand alone device as well.
The watch health and fitness apps in general have proved unexpectedly good for me though. My breathing problem has improved by a large percentage as a direct result of the watch regularly kicking my butt to increase my daily exercise.
Unless you're a MacRumors member who doesn't want to pay Netflix's, Apple's, or Disney's recent subscription price increases. 🤣
What about fall detection? Crash detection? Low heart rate detection? ECG/EKG? Those sure seem like life saving features to me. The Apple Watch not selling would affect people being able to use those.
Apple never claimed the oxygen to be life saving, if anything they claimed it’s a way to get VO2 max for workouts. Heart rate, on the other hand, and ECG, are officially FDA approved.
Because of patent trolls, and their ability to gain legal standing and favorable judgements, I have lost all faith in patent litigation. Very few people have any clue as to the validity of the patent infringement litigation. Most people simply run the case through the filter of their biases and spout opinions based on that.
Anti-capitalism? Apple is guilty.
Anti-big business? Apple is guilty.
Anti-Apple? Apple is guilty.
Apple Fanboy? Apple is not guilty.
I wish we had a good source for unbiased and knowledgable legal opinions on cases like this. If anyone knows one, please let me know.
Anti-capitalism? Apple is guilty.
Anti-big business? Apple is guilty.
Anti-Apple? Apple is guilty.
Apple Fanboy? Apple is not guilty.
I wish we had a good source for unbiased and knowledgable legal opinions on cases like this. If anyone knows one, please let me know.
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
People earlier in the pandemic had 02 sats in the 60s and 70s without respiratory symptoms. It was the paradox called the "happy hypoxic." You can't know just based on the symptoms, which is presumably what the pulse ox is for.
I would trust AliveCor over the Apple Watch for EKG.
Until recently Apple Watch wouldn't even detect a-fib at all above 120 bpm which was silly because a-fib is almost always faster than that.
The current software still has a hard limit on not detecting a-fib over 150 bpm, which would still miss a lot of a-fib, which could easily be up to 200 bpm.
Also the pulse ox of the Apple Watch is not used to calculate VO2 Max. The only advertised benefit I have seen for it as I mentioned above was high altitude campers, who you would expect to have reduced oxygen saturation, perhaps at 90% or even lower depending on the altitude of the excursion. There are places people hike to like Mount Everest where supplemental oxygen is necessary. And that is the context in which they have advertised it (not specifically Everest, but alluding to some sort of high altitude camping site).
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swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
Sounds cozy.
I don't know a lot about it, but I know carbon monoxide (from the wood burning stove) makes it so low oxygen saturation can't be detected accurately by pulse oxes. Hopefully you have a good carbon monoxide detector.
As we all know, high-flying aircraft are pressurized to hold the cabin pressure at 8,000 feet. That's a pretty low pressure compared to sea level obviously. Has anyone checked the Apple Watch blood oxygen app while climbing, at cruise altitude, and descending? Just wondering, thought it might be interesting.
The key factor is the exhaust. If you've got a good updraft through a clean stovepipe and chimney stack everything's hunky dory. The problems start when it's blowing back into the room due to obstructions (creosote, bird nests, etc), i.e. build-up in the stove pipe and/or the chimney main stack.
I've just rebuilt the stovepipe from new pipe and fittings, and we bring in a chimney sweep each year to clean everything. He told me that even a slight obstruction near the top of the chimney will disproportionately reduce the chimney's effectiveness by as much as 50%, and he's dead right.
Now I've got it working great I'll attend to the monoxide monitoring. Previously, every time we opened the door to add wood it would go off. That gets pretty tedious!
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Tim Cook’s Apple = Bill Gates’ Microsoft
This non-stop IP theft was SOP for Gates
This non-stop IP theft was SOP for Gates
For your own health find another way to heat your home.
Because the law permits the ITC to consider the public interest in keeping the product available. In this case, the ITC determined that the public interest factors did not preclude the exclusion order.
https://www.usitc.gov/system/files?file=secretary/fed_reg_notices/337/337_1276_notice10262023sgl.pdf
Masimo is a competitor and seems unwilling to license the tech to Apple. However, their patents will be expiring as soon as 2028. An appeal to the Federal Circuit will buy Apple another year or so. During that time they could either come to an agreement with Masimo, find a way to invalidate the Masimo patents, and/or change the design of the Apple Watch to not infringe the patents.
Yeah, no. At 82% is straight up hypoxia and at those levels your brain is being deprived of oxygen necessary to function. At that level, you will be experiencing vision problems and will likely black out. The widely accepted threshold for hypoxia requiring intervention is 90%/6mmHg.
I think you may be making a critical error in your blame of equipment accuracy and/or even engaging in some pretty wreckless behavior.
We're looking at mini split heat pumps, the DIY-install ones. I helped install one at my mother-in-laws place recently and it seems to work OK. I'd really like to test it in the dead of Upstate NY winter though before pulling the trigger.
A very common way to heat your home in northern Sweden is a wood furnace heating a large tank of water. This water gets circulated through pipes to your radiators. Cheap (if you have access to firewood), simple (just need a system to choke the fire when the water is hot enough which is usually built into the furnace and a valve to regulate the water that goes to the radiators and 2 small pumps) and gives a very good return on the burning of wood.
Thanks, I'll take a look at that. We have a lot of woodlands on our farm, but I buy split and seasoned cord hardwood since it produces less smoke in the house. An outdoor furnace might work. A neighbor has one, I'll ask him about it.
Hmmm... "Masimo has wrongly attempted to use the ITC to keep a potentially lifesaving product from millions of U.S. consumers" isn't exactly a denial...
How is Masimo a competitor? They make medical equipment. The monitoring features of the apple watch are just a small subset of its intended use.
Doctors aren't going to start buying Apple Watches to put on patients to check their vitals instead of approved medical equipment. I don't see how Masimo has a case here; they should be forced to license the patent if it's upheld.
You mean, during all these years they didn't find anything else to steal from?
Well, they did:
The bitter lawsuit hanging over the Apple Watch’s new swipe keyboard
Apple’s head of keyboards stands accused of trying to crush competition
www.theverge.com