Apple Faces $634M Penalty in Blood-Oxygen Patent Dispute

In a significant blow to Apple, a federal jury in California has determined that the technology leader owes $634 million to Masimo, a company specializing in medical monitoring, due to patent infringement associated with blood-oxygen measurement technology. This ruling focuses on features like workout modes and heart rate notifications in the Apple Watch, which the jury concluded breached Masimo’s patent rights.

Apple has expressed strong opposition to the decision and intends to appeal, while Masimo celebrated the verdict as a crucial victory in protecting its intellectual property.

This legal dispute is part of a larger conflict between Masimo, based in Irvine, and Apple, which includes allegations that Apple poached Masimo employees and employed Masimo’s pulse oximetry technology in its watches without consent. This confrontation has already resulted in a U.S. trade tribunal preventing the import of Apple’s Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches in 2023, leading Apple to temporarily disable the blood-oxygen feature before later reinstating it with approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is currently conducting new proceedings to assess whether Apple’s updated devices should be subjected to the import ban. Simultaneously, Masimo continues its legal actions against Customs regarding this decision, while Apple contests the ban in a federal appeals court.

This ruling adds another layer to a complicated legal narrative in which Apple and Masimo have encountered each other multiple times. Earlier in 2023, a California case regarding trade secrets ended in a mistrial, and last year Apple received a modest verdict of $250 in a Delaware design patent case.

The ruling underscores increasing tensions at the intersection of wearable technology and medical advancements, indicating that disputes over intellectual property in the tech industry are becoming more pronounced.