2024-04-05 21:45:48
Apple on Friday asked a U.S. appeals court to overturn a U.S. trade tribunal’s decision that banned imports of some Apple Watches as part of a patent dispute with medical device company Masimo.
Apple told the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the US International Trade Commission’s decision was based on a “series of substantively flawed patent decisions” and that Masimo had not demonstrated that it had invested in manufacturing competing US products, what would justify the order.
Representatives for Apple and Masimo did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
Irvine, California-based Masimo has accused Apple of poaching its employees and stealing its pulse oximetry technology after discussing a possible collaboration. Apple first introduced pulse oximetry in its Series 6 Apple Watches in 2020.
Masimo convinced the ITC on December 26 to block imports of Apple’s latest Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches after finding that their technology for measuring blood oxygen levels infringed Masimo’s patents.
Apple temporarily resumed sales of the watches the next day after convincing the federal appeals court to pause the ban. The appeals court reinstated the ban in January, prompting Apple to remove pulse oximetry features from watches sold during the appeal process, which Apple said could take at least a year.
US Customs and Border Protection separately determined in January that redesigned versions of the watches did not violate Masimo’s rights and were not subject to the ban. Masimo said in a court filing that the watches “definitely do not include pulse oximetry functionality.”
Apple told the Federal Circuit on Friday that the ban could not be sustained because a Masimo wearable covered by the patents was “purely hypothetical” at the time the ITC complaint was filed in 2021.
The tech giant also argued that Masimo’s patents were invalid and that its watches did not infringe them. (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Josie Kao)
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