Apple has achieved a judicial victory in the United States. A federal jury in Delaware determined that two models of Masimo brand smartwatches infringed some of its design patents. For this reason, the company valued at more than 2 billion dollars will receive a payment of 250 dollars as damages.
$250, that is, the same as an Apple Watch SE costs.
The verdict states that Masimo’s W1 and Freedom chargers and watches infringed two Apple design patents. Jurors also indicated that intellectual property was intentionally misused. Blunt statements that ended in symbolic compensation for the plaintiff firm.
Apple chose minimum compensation
As Bloomberg explains, it was Apple itself that requested the aforementioned figure. It is about the minimum compensation that could be applied in this case. Masimo’s payment of damages to Apple, however, means that the Cupertino company is left without the opportunity to try to block sales of Masimo watches.
Apple’s legal team has said that the “ultimate purpose” of its lawsuit was not money, but to stop copying its design and features. Masimo, for its part, said it appreciated the jury’s verdict “in favor of Masimo and against Apple on almost every issue,” and that the decision only applied to a “discontinued module and charger.”
The resolution of this case does not mean the end of the legal battles between these companies. Masimo sued Apple for the first time in 2020, the year in which the Apple Watch Series 6 was launched, a device that allowed measuring the blood oxygen saturation. The controversy was precisely in this new functionality.
Apple Watch Ultra
Masimo claimed that the Cupertino firm had stolen trade secrets related to a variety of technologies, including pulse oximetry. That case was declared a mistrial by a jury. Until then, Masimo was a medical technology company, but soon after it launched its own smartwatch with health functions.
Fields W1
Apple sued Masimo, accusing it of copying its technology and taking legal action with the sole purpose of gaining an advantage in the market. Masimo sued again to those from Cupertino, this time for unfair competition. The legal battle between both firms escalated until Masimo won a victory last year.
The US International Trade Commission ruled in October that Apple infringed Masimo patents and ordered sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 blocked. Apple appealed that decision and was only able to resume sales when it disabled the blood pressure measurement function. blood oxygen saturation of your devices.
Joe Kiani, who earlier this year had spent more than $100 million in his legal battle with Apple, was removed from his position on the board of Masimo, a company he founded in “a garage” in 1989. After As a result of this movement, Kiani decided to leave his position as CEO.
Images | Apple | Masimo
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