Apple Wins Heart Monitoring Watch Tech Dispute
A federal judge has ruled in favour of Apple in a dispute alleging its smartwatch copied heart-monitoring technology from a Khosla Ventures LLC-backed startup, AliveCor.
According to Bloomberg’s Rachel Graf, the dispute was based on a meeting in 2015, when AliveCor co-founder David Albert was invited by Apple executives to show off his ‘KardiaBand’ heart-monitoring device. AliveCor claims Albert was told the iPhone maker intended to collaborate on the technology.
Apple has said that there was no pretense of a partnership.
Apple announced its own heart health initiative for the Apple Watch after 18 months of discussions between the companies. According to the complaint, this occured a few hours after AliveCor informed Apple of the official launch date for the KardiaBand.
Bloomberg’s Graf confirmed that, in the case “AliveCor v. Apple, 21-cv-03958, US District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland)”, US District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California, entered a judgment Tuesday in favor of Apple.
Details of decision were filed under seal, due to confidentiality concerns by the companies, with a redacted version made public in coming weeks.
Apple said in a statement that AliveCor’s lawsuit challenged the company’s ability to improve important capabilities of the Apple Watch that consumers and developers rely on, and this outcome confirms that is not anticompetitive.
“We will continue to vigorously protect our intellectual property to benefit our consumers and promote innovation,” said the “deeply disappointed” AliveCor.
AliveCor said separate patent claims against Apple are still being litigated.