A federal jury in California ruled on Friday that Apple must pay Masimo, a medical-monitoring technology firm, $634 million in damages for violating a patent on blood-oxygen sensing tech used in the Apple Watch.
The verdict upheld Masimo’s claims that features like workout mode and heart rate notifications in the Apple Watch infringed the patent, according to a Masimo spokesperson. Apple has indicated it will appeal the decision.
Reuters:
An Apple spokesperson said that the company disagrees with the verdict and will appeal.
“Over the past six years (Masimo has) sued Apple in multiple courts and asserted over 25 patents, the majority of which have been found to be invalid,” the spokesperson said. “The single patent in this case expired in 2022, and is specific to historic patient monitoring technology from decades ago.”
The dispute led a U.S. trade tribunal to block imports of Apple’s Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches in 2023 after finding that Apple’s technology infringed Masimo’s patents.
Apple removed blood-oxygen reading technology from its watches to avoid the ban and reintroduced an updated version of the technology in August with approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The ITC separately on Friday decided to hold a new proceeding to determine whether Apple’s updated watches should be subject to the ban.
MacDailyNews Take: To be overtunred on appeal.
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