With their Apple Watch, Cupertino has managed to establish itself as a leader in the market for high-end smartwatches. And, although there are other devices loaded with functions and that offer good performance, the lack of an ecosystem similar to that offered by Android for smartphones with which to stand up to iOS, has made things much easier for Apple. Google's Wear plans are a threat to Apple in this regard.
But even before that, even though the rival ecosystem is already underway, those in Cupertino will have to face another problem that can also jeopardize their sales. But, in this case, it would not be through competition, but through a veto. And, as we can read in Bloomberg, Masimo Corp. is expanding its legal fight against Apple, filing a complaint about patent infringement in the International Trade Commission of the United States. that seeks to stop the imports of the Apple Watch to the country.
Founded in 1989, Masimo is a medical technology company specializing in the development and manufacture of sensors and other non-invasive patient monitoring tools. A field in which, just look at the Apple Watch and similar devices, smartwatches have entered with great force. From the built-in heart rate monitor from the Series 3 to the measurement of blood oxygen (saturation) using an infrared beam from the Apple Watch Series 6, not to mention the glucose monitor that we expect for the Series 7.
And it is precise with the measurement of the blood oxygen level of the Series 6 that Apple could have gotten into trouble, as Masimo has sued Cupertino for an alleged violation of five patents related to the use of emitted light to measure said levels. Technologies that, according to the company, are a fundamental key of its business, and would be being unfairly copied by Apple on its Apple Watch.
Although it will still be quite a few months, we may even have to wait for 2022, some analysts consider that it is most likely that this cause will finally conclude with an agreement between the parties, for which Apple will be forced to pay 50 and 300 millions of dollars a year to continue to use these functions. However, this depends very directly on what the United States Patent and Trademark Office concludes, as to whether or not Apple has actually used technologies registered by Masino on its Apple Watch. The question is whether the International Trade Commission will act sooner, accepting Masimo's request to ban the sale of the Apple Watch in the United States.
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