$2 billion Apple Watch patent battle ends in mistrial

Ofer

laytech said:

I'm tired of patent trolls. Some are funded by investment companies, hoping to make a quick buck. Ultimately, it's the lawyers that win at the end of the day, and everyone else suffers because of it. We are losing our way. 

Masimo isn’t a patent troll. They’re suing based on actual tech which they developed. I’m not saying that they’re right in their assumption that Apple stole their tech. But they’re not just sitting on a patent for something they didn’t actually develop.

chasm

laytech said:

I'm tired of patent trolls. Some are funded by investment companies, hoping to make a quick buck. Ultimately, it's the lawyers that win at the end of the day, and everyone else suffers because of it. We are losing our way. 

You really should have read the linked earlier articles. Masimo is absolutely not a patent troll, they are a major medical technology company who developed and patented these technologies. That said, they are down to one possible case of infringement on a single Masimo patent for pulse oximetry, and the judge here can still rule against them on that (taking a cue from the way the jury was leaning), so Masimo seems to be on shaky ground with everyone but the ITC, which will have to reconsider their own judgement if the federal court wipes out Masimo's remaining charge.

I expect that if that happens, Masimo will have to accept a settlement in order to drop the ITC case.

charlesn

Not only is Masimo not a patent troll, as others have stated, but Apple's behavior here was pretty sleazy. Unfortunately for Masimo, sleazy doesn't mean illegal. After expressing interest in possibly incorporating Masimo pulse oximetry tech into Apple Watch, Apple instead poached two top execs with deep knowledge of the tech by doubling their salaries and offering millions in stock options. It sucks that a behemoth with mountains of cash like Apple gets to crush a smaller innovator like Masimo, but again, that's not necessarily illegal to do. There can be no doubt that the knowledge these execs had of Masimo's pulse oximetry tech helped Apple to develop what it uses in the Apple Watch--Apple didn't back up the cash truck for them just because they had good people skills--but as long as Apple's version doesn't violate any of Masimo's patents, I"m not sure what recourse there is for Masimo.