Dive Brief:
- Masimo has hit back against Apple, filing counterclaims that accuse the tech giant of infringing its blood oxygen monitoring patents and violating federal competition laws.
- The counterclaims come weeks after Apple opened a new front in its legal dispute with Masimo by filing two lawsuits that allege the medtech company copied its technology.
- While the Apple lawsuits are at the start of the legal process, other aspects of the dispute are nearing their conclusion. The U.S. International Trade Commission is expected to rule on Masimo’s request to ban Apple Watch imports early next year and a lawsuit filed by Masimo is scheduled to come to trial in March.
Dive Insight:
Apple’s move into personal health monitoring through its wearable devices has sparked a wave of legal activity. The addition of cardiac monitoring capabilities to the Apple Watch led AliveCor to sue the company in 2020, setting in motion a set of cases that have seen the International Trade Commission lay the groundwork for a ban on imports of the wearable and the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board rule against AliveCor.
In parallel, pulse oximetry specialist Masimo has taken Apple to court over other Watch features. The dispute began in 2020, when Masimo filed a trade-secret lawsuit against Apple. Masimo alleges that Apple, working through Masimo’s former employees, misappropriated its trade secrets. Last month, a court ruled in favor of Masimo in an unlawful theft case it filed against an employee that left for Apple.
The Apple trade secret lawsuit is scheduled to come to trial in March. Masimo followed up with a trade commission complaint last year. The trade decision, which is due early next year, could ban the import of certain Apple Watches.
Attacked from multiple angles, Apple counterpunched in October by filing two lawsuits against Masimo, which moved into the consumer health tracking wearable space earlier this year with the launch of its W1 watch and health tracking device. The lawsuits said that “rather than innovating and developing a product independently, Masimo copied Apple while filing lawsuits to try to prevent sales of Apple Watch.”
Now, Masimo has responded with a broad set of counterclaims that accuse Apple of breaking laws on monopolies, false advertising and deceptive trade practices while infringing its patents.
“Masimo has alleged that Apple infringed Masimo’s patents, violated federal competition laws and also falsely advertised to consumers key features of the Apple Watch. The world’s largest company should not be allowed to escape legal accountability for its pattern of unlawful behavior against smaller competitors,” a spokesperson for the medtech company said.
In its monopolization counterclaim, Masimo accuses Apple of violating Federal antitrust laws by asserting patents that it obtained through fraud against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and by leveraging its power over iOS app distribution to exclude or delay apps to harm Masimo and others in the health watch market. According to Masimo, Apple is trying to exclude competitors, eliminate consumer choice and flood the market with technologically inferior devices.
The false advertising accusations center on the claim that Apple is misleading customers into buying and relying on the Apple Watch for health monitoring even though its features are deficient if used for such purposes.
