On Monday, Apple urged a U.S. appeals court to reverse a trade tribunal’s ruling that required the removal of blood-oxygen monitoring technology from its Apple Watches to prevent a ban on U.S. smartwatch imports.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard arguments from the tech giant, medical monitoring technology company Masimo, and the U.S. International Trade Commission over the ITC’s 2023 ruling that Apple Watches violated Masimo’s patent rights in pulse oximetry technology.
Apple attorney Joseph Mueller of WilmerHale told the court on Monday that the decision had wrongly “deprived millions of Apple Watch users” of Apple’s blood-oxygen feature. A lawyer for Masimo, Joseph Re of Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear, countered that Apple was trying to “rewrite the law” with its arguments.
The judges questioned whether Masimo’s development of a competing smartwatch justified the ITC’s ruling. Apple has told the appeals court that the ban was improper because a Masimo wearable device covered by the patents was “purely hypothetical” when Masimo filed its ITC complaint in 2021.
Irvine, California-based Masimo has accused Apple of hiring its employees and stealing its pulse oximetry technology after discussing a potential collaboration.
MacDailyNews Take: The saga continues.
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