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"Masimo detailed how Apple poached its top executives and more than a dozen other employees before later releasing a watch with pulse oximeter capabilities — wh
by neom 3y ago
"Masimo detailed how Apple poached its top executives and more than a dozen other employees before later releasing a watch with pulse oximeter capabilities — which measures the percentage of oxygen that red blood cells carry from the lungs to the body — that were patented by Masimo"
"Joe Kiani, the chief executive of Masimo, said in an interview that Apple had not engaged in licensing negotiations. Instead, he said that Apple had appealed to President Biden to veto the I.T.C. ruling, which Mr. Kiani knows because the administration contacted Masimo about Apple’s request."
“If they don’t want to use our chip, I’ll work with them to make their product good,” Mr. Kiani said. “Once it’s good enough, I’m happy to give them a license.”
Super interesting case, thought Apple would be less sloppy than this.
- diebeforei485 3y agoApple has an aggressive legal strategy because they can afford to bend/break the law first and let things play out in court (this case was first filed in early 2020 before the pandemic) while their competitors generally cannot.
- CharlieDigital 3y agoCase in point: reaching out to the President of the United States to intervene. Crazy.
- KennyBlanken 3y agoOr leasing a new Mercedes every few months so that you never have to have a license plate and register your car like the rest of us plebians...and can illegally park in handicapped parking spaces because cops can't issue a ticket to a vehicle with no plate.
- oblio 3y agoWho does that?
- consp 3y agoWhy on earth can you drive without a registration of the vehicle. This simply indicates the law is broken. Still scummy behaviour but fixing the law so you have to get a plate before driving would solve this (like it's in many places of the world).
- nradov 3y agoThis wasn't a registration issue. In CA, new car dealers immediately register cars upon sale. The issue is that license plates formerly weren't issued until sometime later, so it was legal to drive a new car for up to 6 months with no plates. That law was fixed as of 2019. Now dealers have to install temporary license plates. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/news-and-media/dmv-reminds-motorists-of-new-2019-laws/ https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/news-and-media/dmv-reminds-mot... Steve Jobs was notorious for trading in his car every 6 months so that he could park in handicapped spaces without being ticketed. https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/steve-jobs-car-apple-ceo-license-plates/story?id=14834608 https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/steve-jobs-car-apple-ceo-l...
- russdill 3y agoI realize from the perspective of patent law, the patent is not dumb and Apple needs to respect patent law. But man, the patent is just dumb. It's simply just existing technology A, but on obvious technology B. There is absolutely zero innovation. https://patents.google.com/patent/US11474483B2/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US11474483B2/en
- NewJazz 3y agoyou linked to a patent held by apple? is that the patent that was violated??
- bitvoid 3y agoWrong patent. https://patents.google.com/patent/US10912502B2/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US10912502B2/en
- starttoaster 3y agoSo all wear-able devices that use light to measure attributes from your blood stream require a license from the holders of this patent? It's really no surprise that businesses don't try to compete with each other in the "free market" and quasi-monopolies reign supreme. Chances are you're going to be seen as eating somebody's lunch somehow if you try to sell anything. I suppose you could argue that it's Apple violating the patent here, hardly a party to feel empathy for. But they just had the gumption to put skin in this game. We could have tons of competing devices that do this in their own wear-able products with distinct user experiences for each, but somebody beat them all to the patent house so why bother.
- aeturnum 3y agoI think there are many problems with the patent system but the way you are describing it is overly broad. There are lots of technical details in this patent that describe a way of doing that. Once the period of exclusivity is up anyone can use that technique freely - but for now other people would have to pay or use an inferior technique that doesn't violate the patent. Arguably there's not a lot of value in every device working as perfectly as possible, but there's a lot of value in giving inventors temporary monopolies on truly new things.
- mort96 3y agoIt’s so wild that a patent owner is allowed to refuse to sell a license to use the patented technology.
- caminante 3y agoHuh? That doesn't apply here at all. > To avoid a complete ban on sales, Apple had two months to cut a deal with Masimo to license its technology, or it could appeal to the Biden administration to reverse the ruling. But Joe Kiani, the chief executive of Masimo, said in an interview that Apple had not engaged in licensing negotiations
- mort96 3y ago> “If they don’t want to use our chip, I’ll work with them to make their product good,” Mr. Kiani said. “Once it’s good enough, I’m happy to give them a license.” Doesn’t this quite plainly mean that they aren’t willing to just license the patent?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- caminante 3y agoNothing of the sort. How does this statement reject a willingness to license?
- doix 3y agoBecause the options are either use their hardware or "work with them". That seems pretty unreasonable to me. You're holding them hostage to collaborate. I'm not an Apple fan, but this feels like abuse of the patent system. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know if it's legal, but being forced to work with a company to access their parent feels like absolute bullshit. Ask for your $X per device sold and be done with it.
- 3y ago