GoKawiilApple just scored an important win in its ongoing battle with Masimo over patents related to the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen feature. Here are the details.
A bit of context
Over the past few years, Apple and health technology company Masimo have been locked in a fierce legal battle over the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensor.
After multiple decisions and appeals, Apple had to deactivate the technology on Apple Watches sold in the US to avoid a ban, and ended up developing a redesigned version of the feature, which moved most of the process to the iPhone, using data collected by the Apple Watch.
According to the International Trade Commission, that was enough to allow Apple to resume selling Apple Watch models with the feature enabled in the US, as the agency concluded it did not infringe Masimo’s patents.
Naturally, Masimo disagreed and filed petitions arguing that Apple’s redesign still fell within the scope of the existing exclusion order, while also challenging U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s decision to approve the updated watches.
This led to two recent decisions, as we covered here:
First, an ITC Administrative Law Judge Monica Bhattacharyya found in an initial determination that Apple’s redesigned version of the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen feature does not infringe Masimo’s patents.
Second, the Federal Circuit has affirmed the ITC’s initial exclusion order, meaning the original version of the blood oxygen feature on Apple Watch is still banned in the United States.
Following those rulings, the final step was for the full Commission to decide whether to review the Administrative Law Judge’s finding of no infringement, which brings us to today.
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