Apple To Pause Selling New Versions of Its Watch After Losing Patent Dispute (nytimes.com) 36
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Apple said on Monday that it would pause sales of its flagship smartwatches online starting Thursday and at retail locations on Christmas Eve. Two months ago, Apple lost a patent case over the technology its smartwatches use to detect people's pulse rate. The company was ordered to stop selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 after Christmas, which could set off a run on sales of the watches in the final week of holiday shopping.
The move by Apple follows a ruling by the International Trade Commission in October that found several Apple Watches infringe on patents held by Masimo, a medical technology company in Irvine, Calif.
In court, Masimo detailed how Apple poached its top executives and more than a dozen other employees before later releasing a watch with pulse oximeter capabilities -- whichmeasures the percentage of oxygen that red blood cells carry from the lungs to the body -- that were patented by Masimo. To avoid a complete ban on sales, Apple had two months to cut a deal with Masimo to license its technology, or it could appeal to the Biden administration to reverse the ruling. But Joe Kiani, the chief executive of Masimo, said in an interview that Apple had not engaged in licensing negotiations. Instead, he said that Apple had appealed to President Biden to veto the I.T.C. ruling, which Mr. Kiani knows because the administration contacted Masimo about Apple's request. "They're trying to make the agency look like it's helping patent trolls," Mr. Kiani said of the I.T.C.
Mr. Kiani said that he was willing to sell Apple a chip that Masimo had designed to provide pulse oximeter readings on the Apple Watch. The chip is currently in a Masimo medical watch, called the W1, that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The device uses algorithms to process red and near-infrared light to determine how oxygen-rich is the blood in arteries. "If they don't want to use our chip, I'll work with them to make their product good," Mr. Kiani said. "Once it's good enough, I'm happy to give them a license." Apple introduced its first watch with pulse oximetry in 2020. It has included the technology, which it calls "blood oxygen," in subsequent models. But unlike Masimo's W1 device, Apple hasn't had its watches cleared by the F.D.A. for use as a medical device for pulse oximetry. "The Apple Watch accounts for nearly $20 billion of the company's $383.29 billion in annual sales," notes the NYT. The company is the largest smartwatch seller in the world, accounting for about a third of all smartwatch sales.
In court, Masimo detailed how Apple poached its top executives and more than a dozen other employees before later releasing a watch with pulse oximeter capabilities -- whichmeasures the percentage of oxygen that red blood cells carry from the lungs to the body -- that were patented by Masimo. To avoid a complete ban on sales, Apple had two months to cut a deal with Masimo to license its technology, or it could appeal to the Biden administration to reverse the ruling. But Joe Kiani, the chief executive of Masimo, said in an interview that Apple had not engaged in licensing negotiations. Instead, he said that Apple had appealed to President Biden to veto the I.T.C. ruling, which Mr. Kiani knows because the administration contacted Masimo about Apple's request. "They're trying to make the agency look like it's helping patent trolls," Mr. Kiani said of the I.T.C.
Mr. Kiani said that he was willing to sell Apple a chip that Masimo had designed to provide pulse oximeter readings on the Apple Watch. The chip is currently in a Masimo medical watch, called the W1, that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The device uses algorithms to process red and near-infrared light to determine how oxygen-rich is the blood in arteries. "If they don't want to use our chip, I'll work with them to make their product good," Mr. Kiani said. "Once it's good enough, I'm happy to give them a license." Apple introduced its first watch with pulse oximetry in 2020. It has included the technology, which it calls "blood oxygen," in subsequent models. But unlike Masimo's W1 device, Apple hasn't had its watches cleared by the F.D.A. for use as a medical device for pulse oximetry. "The Apple Watch accounts for nearly $20 billion of the company's $383.29 billion in annual sales," notes the NYT. The company is the largest smartwatch seller in the world, accounting for about a third of all smartwatch sales.
Maybe they will just buy them (Score:2)
At a 6 billion market cap, you can sell a year or watches and cover the cost to buy the company in question.
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Possibly. But IBM could also have bought SCO for pretty much pocket change. The problem is that if you capitulate like that, how do you discourage the next comer looking for the deepest pockets? Who even knows what Apple's ultimate solution will be? But sometimes it can be advantageous to go "Millions for defense, not one red cent for tribute." and set an example to discourage future shenanigans by others.
Re:Maybe they will just buy them (Score:5, Insightful)
You seem to be implying that there are shenanigans going on. Sounds like Masimo has a legitimate patent on a technology that Apple infringed upon knowingly,
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May just not infringe on patents?
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FTC might not approve?
Seems a bit corrupt to buy out a company that is suing you to make the lawsuit go away
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How is that corrupt? In any way??
Re:ITC's helping patent trolls? (Score:5, Informative)
Damn right they are. Dual band pulse oximetry techology is as old as the hills... well, not quite, but it has been around since the 1930s and devices using it since the 1940s. It's such a well known technique that you can buy pulse oximetry breakout boards for Arduino for just 1 or 2 dollars.
Except Apple (or Masimo) aren't using the same technology, Mr. Armchair.
https://www.masimo.com/technol... [masimo.com]
Re: ITC's helping patent trolls? (Score:5, Informative)
Read the link, moron. They specifically mentioned how the method you're referring to can't differentiate between aerial flow and venous flow. Movement fucks with the latter but not the former, thus optical monitoring is inaccurate in some cases, e.g. while doing a workout. They apparently solved that problem and got a patent for it, in addition to FDA approval for the technique, which was clinically proven. Then Apple copied it.
Apple did the same shit to Samsung, who won their case fairly, but the Obama admin vetoed it while refusing to do the same when the situation was reversed. Apple is trying to get the current admin to do that again. Basically Apple is acting in bad faith, and you annoying Appletologists refuse to hear anything that contradicts your faith in T Don Cookard.
Re: ITC's helping patent trolls? (Score:2)
s/aerial/arterial/
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Kiani is a major contributor to Biden, so don't look for Apple succeeding in getting it reversed.
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he means arterial, not aerial.
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Yeh typed it on mobile, might have been an autocorrect or something.
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Damn right they are. Dual band pulse oximetry techology is as old as the hills... well, not quite, but it has been around since the 1930s and devices using it since the 1940s. It's such a well known technique that you can buy pulse oximetry breakout boards for Arduino for just 1 or 2 dollars.
Maybe, but the summary make it sounds like Masimo developed some novel tech, was willing to license it fairly, and instead Apple poached a bunch of employees to get them to recreate the patented tech in-house.
I'm not a fan of the patent system, but if the summary's description is correct they have a legit complaint against Apple.
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Not only the summary, the whole story documented in multiples articles [slashdot.org] already shows Apple is in the wrong here.
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Damn right they are. Dual band pulse oximetry techology is as old as the hills... well, not quite, but it has been around since the 1930s and devices using it since the 1940s.
I've been waiting for someone to compare an Apple watch to a 80lbs machine that was moved around on a cart, plugged into a wall, and required the patient to wear a headset that performed pulse oximetry through their ear. Absolutely nothing has changed since then. Toooootaaaallly the same thing. /s
You didn't disappoint AC.
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Maybe 80-lb pulse oximeters exist somewhere, but I've never seen one. Most oximeters are self-contained devices which are designed to slip over your finger. The OP was right to be skeptical about patentability, he's asking the same question I wondered about when I saw the headline.
Reading the Masimo link: it sounds like the "innovative" or patentable part is that they figured out a better way to get rid of motion artifacts. (They published an article on their tech way back in 1996: https://pubmed.ncbi.nl [nih.gov]
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If Masimo didn't invent anything of significance, why do you think Apple needed to poach their engineers?
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If Masimo didn't invent anything of significance, why do you think Apple needed to poach their engineers?
No, you misunderstand me, I didn't say that; I said it sounded like the "motion artifact removal" tech was at least potentially patentable. That is to say, it's not obvious BS (or an attempt to patent "existing technology but on a smartwatch").
I also said that personally, I wouldn't care whether my smartwatch had motion artifact removal or not. But I suppose some consumers would complain if it wasn't there, so it has some commercial value.
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Sleep appnoe?
Aka suffocation during sleep?
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The main uses I see for oximeter-on-a-smartwatch are 1) figuring out if someone who is short of breath needs to go to the ER, 2) keeping an eye on Grandma, and 3) screening for sleep apnea. All three of these goals can be accomplished even if your oximeter has motion artifacts.
Crucially, Covid-19 patients at home didn't realize they were patients, and the blood ox level can crash quickly. (This was before rapid Covid-19 testing.) With a blood ox* meter, one can detect the initial drop and go to the ER before the crash. The initial drop precedes the crash by a few (?) days. When this news came out, drug stores ran out of $15 pulse oxs. Took about a month for the supply to stabilize.
(*) The TFS wrongly implies the company is "calling" the device a blood ox instead of a pulse ox. A
live by the sword, die by the sword (Score:2)
There's a lot of bullshit patents out there, but Apple like to enforce theirs vigorously. Serves them right.
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Legit question - does Apple use patents to stop others from entering the market, or do they primarily use them to stop others interacting with the Apple ecosystem?
(Not that the 2nd is particularily less of an issue that the 1st given Apple's large market share, but I only really hear aboutthe 2nd)
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Apple used in their try to stop competition such bullshit patents as "slide to unlock" and "rectangle with rounded corners", you can't get lower than this.
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To be fair in that case, "rectangle with rounded corners" was part of a design patent, not a utility patent, and it was the whole look that Apple was trying to protect, not just rounded corners in isolation.
Those facts don't mean I agree with Apple on their patent-related litigation in TFA or elsewhere, though.
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Apple can fuck off and get bent.
I still have a TC1100 stashed somewhere in the back of a cupboard which I should throw away. The design patent was garbage: they cited that machine as prior art and then didn't propose anything substantially different and patented and enforced the design anyway.
Rounded corners was not a new idea design or otherwise.
Like I said, serves them right.
C’mon Apple (Score:5, Interesting)
You actually LOST an IP theft case to this outfit? With your legal firepower? That means that you did more than just nick a bit of knowledge from them. If you had staged a commando-style raid on the headquarters, beat up everyone in the building, cracked their safe with explosives, teabagged everyone on the way out and live-streamed it on Facebook, you’d STILL have a 50/50 shot at defeating an IP theft lawsuit.
You could have outright-bought Masimo and the expense would barely even have moved the needle on the account you use to buy employees coffee and donuts. Plus, you’re trying hard to get into the medical devices biz and I bet all those biomedical engineers with laser expertise would have helped your blood-sugar efforts as well. Instead you engineered a PR sh&tshow for yourself.
Apple, you do most things right and you deserve your title as #1 in consumer electronics. I’m a fan. But this one falls squarely in the column with the butterfly keyboard and antennagate.
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Difficult to buy a company that is not for sale.
im not sure what is worse (Score:1)
Garmin, others ? (Score:2)
Patent infringement (Score:1)
If it is patent infringement then the watch should get FDA approval for all sold watches.
Else the patent is likely too generic.
Masimo even says Apple did not infringe enough to make a good product.