The Apple Watch is one of the Apple devices that has revolutionized the industry the most in recent years. And it is that, not every day a device is launched that is capable of saving lives. Now if the Apple Watch could be in jeopardy, and unless Apple doesn’t do something, this watch could lose one of its greatest strengths. It is not a rumor, but a judicial process.
Apple Watch and electrocardiograms
The scanner to perform electrocardiograms on the Apple Watch is one of the strengths of this watch. And in fact, it has been one of the elements that has positioned (even more) the Apple Watch as a device focused on health. Having such a meter in a watch is undoubtedly something surprising and can be useful in certain situations. Now this is the function that is in jeopardy. As reported by the MacRumors portal, the administration of the Joe Biden government has refused to revoke a decision of the United States International Trade Commission, which maintains that “Apple infringes patents from the medical services company AliveCor.”
AliveCor is a Californian medical device and technology company, which is currently in litigation with Apple for “infringing the patents that underpin our industry-leading ECG technology,” explains Priya Abani, CEO of AliveCor. “This decision goes beyond AliveCor and sends a clear message to people who innovate that United States will protect patents to build and scale new technologies that benefit consumers,” he says.
Dance of complaints and patents
From MacRumors they explain that this sentence of the International Trade Commission (ITC, its acronym in English), dates back to the month of December 2022. «A limited exclusion order and a restraining order were recommended. Cease and desist for Apple Watch models with ECG functions“, they explain in the middle. “If enforced, Apple would no longer be able to import new Apple Watch models that support ECG apps,” they report.
This litigation, however, is not the first between both deliveries. Already at the time, AliveCor filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. And in reverse, Apple has sued AliveCor for patent infringement. This, if we talk about the problems between both companies. As it turns out, Apple doesn’t just have this problem with the Apple Watch. And it is that there is another company, Masimoof which it is explained that “Apple Watch models that use light sensors to measure blood oxygen levels infringe their pulse oximeter patents,” they explain from MacRumors.
It is, therefore, a new problem for the Apple Watch that could endanger the device. The ECG (electrocardiograms) function is one of the great flags that Apple has to sell the Apple Watch. A device focused on health, which if the lawsuit goes ahead, «You risk US import ban“, in the words of MacRumors. At the moment, everything seems to be a dance of lawsuits and companies, and we can only wait to see what can finally happen. Will the Apple Watch keep the ECG function? Will it stay as a crippled health device? Will Apple have to reinvent itself? Time will tell.
