Verdict Reached Five Years After Lawsuit Filed
Jury Finds Apple Infringed All Four Masimo Patents
ITC to Reinvestigate Apple Watch Patent Infringement
A U.S. court has ruled that the blood oxygen monitoring feature on Apple’s smartwatch, the Apple Watch, infringed on patents held by the medical technology company Masimo.
The new Apple Watch model was displayed on the 18th (local time) at the Apple Store in Austin, Texas, USA. Photo by Yonhap News
On November 14 (local time), Masimo announced that a jury at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found Apple liable for patent infringement and ordered Apple to pay Masimo $634 million (approximately 920 billion KRW) in damages.
This verdict comes five years after Masimo filed the lawsuit against Apple in 2020. Previously, Masimo had sought damages of $634 million to $749 million, calculating royalties of $14.72 to $17.39 per unit for approximately 43 million Apple Watches sold. In response, Apple argued that damages should be limited to between $3 million and $6 million. However, the jury sided with Masimo. The jury also determined that Apple infringed all four of Masimo’s patents at issue in this case.
Masimo stated that the outcome is “an important achievement in our efforts to protect our innovation and intellectual property rights,” adding that they are satisfied with the result. However, the California legal journal Daily Journal reported that Apple is expected to appeal the decision.
Separately from this lawsuit, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is also re-examining Apple’s alleged infringement of Masimo’s patents. According to local media reports, the ITC decided on this day to initiate new proceedings to determine whether to ban imports of the newly updated Apple Watch.
In 2023, the ITC’s full commission ruled that Apple had infringed Masimo’s patents and imposed a U.S. import ban on the Apple Watch. Since all Apple Watches are manufactured outside the United States, including in China, the import ban effectively amounted to a sales ban.
As a result, Apple resumed sales of the product early last year with the blood oxygen monitoring feature removed, and only in August was the feature reintroduced after a redesign that did not infringe the patents. The ITC plans to review for up to six months whether the redesigned feature still infringes on Masimo’s patents.
Apple also filed a countersuit in a Delaware court, claiming that Masimo’s smartwatch infringed on Apple’s design patents, and won the case. However, the damages awarded amounted to only $250 (approximately 360,000 KRW).
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