Apple has notched a significant victory by successfully challenging patents at the center of a high-profile dispute over Apple Watch heart monitoring technologies with medical device company AliveCor.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board, or PTAB, on Tuesday ruled that three AliveCor patents covering heart monitoring technologies for wearable devices were unpatentable. AliveCor alleged in federal court and before the International Trade Commission that Apple had copied the technologies with its Apple Watch, and over the summer an ITC judge found that Apple had infringed on two of three patents AliveCor asserted in its complaint.
The decision could disrupt the proceedings at the ITC, which is set to decide by December 12 whether there ought to be an exclusion order, or import ban, on infringing Apple Watches. It’s likely that Apple will swiftly submit the PTAB rulings to the ITC for consideration in its decision…
While the PTAB’s decision may put a damper on AliveCor’s patent infringement complaints, the company has also filed a pending federal antitrust case against Apple. Apple, for its part, in early December filed a patent complaint against AliveCor. Apple has also challenged several other AliveCor patents at the PTAB.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in May 2021:
The fact is that AliveCor sells a bunch of finger-pad devices that cost more, are less convenient, and more likely to get lost versus an Apple Watch that’s strapped to your wrist. AliveCor is losing because their ECG solutions are less elegant, larger, bulkier than simply wearing an Apple Watch Series 4 (released in September 2018) or later with ECG.
There a reason why founding CEO, and former Google exec, Vic Gundotra left AliveCor in February 2018: The company has no real future as currently constructed.
Can’t compete? Litigate.
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
