• Medical device maker Masimo is confident it can win its legal battle against Apple over a feature on the Apple Watch, citing previous victories against True Wearables, a startup run by a former Apple executive.
• Masimo alleges that Apple couldn’t have developed certain watch technologies without the help of Marcelo Lamego, who previously worked at both Masimo and Apple.
• Masimo CEO Joe Kiani accuses Apple of a deliberate infringement of intellectual property, resulting in an import ban on certain Apple Watch models, which has been temporarily paused pending further review.
What is the invention here? Infrared SPOx meters have been around forever, and wireless is a standard way to communicate data now. Didn’t Fitbits do all this stuff at least a decade ago?
Reflectance based pulse oximeters have only been commercialized in the last decade or so. The transmissive ones that shine IR through tissue (where the IR source and the IR sensors are on opposite sides of a fingertip or earlobe) have been around for decades, but a one-sided pulse oximeter that maintains accuracy with movement is basically a recent invention.