US jury says Apple must pay Masimo $634 million in smartwatch patent case

By Blake Brittain (Reuters) -A federal jury in California said on Friday that Apple owes medical-monitoring technology company Masimo $634 million for infringing a patent covering blood-oxygen reading technology. The jury agreed with Masimo that the Apple Watch's workout mode and heart rate notification features violated Masimo's patent rights, a Masimo spokesperson confirmed. An Apple spokesperson said that the company disagrees with the verdict and will appeal. "Over the past six years (Masimo has) sued Apple in multiple courts and asserted over 25 patents, the majority of which have been found to be invalid," the spokesperson said. "The single patent in this case expired in 2022, and is specific to historic patient monitoring technology from decades ago." Masimo, in a statement, called the verdict "a significant win in our ongoing efforts to protect our innovations and intellectual property." The California lawsuit is one branch of a contentious, multi-front patent fight between Apple and Irvine, California-based Masimo, which has accused Apple of hiring away its employees and stealing its pulse oximetry technology to use in Apple Watches. The dispute led a U.S. trade tribunal to block imports of Apple's Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches in 2023 after finding that Apple's technology infringed Masimo's patents. Apple removed blood-oxygen reading technology from its watches to avoid the ban and reintroduced an updated version of the technology in August with approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The ITC separately on Friday decided to hold a new proceeding to determine whether Apple's updated watches should be subject to the ban.  Masimo has filed an ongoing lawsuit against Customs over the decision. Apple has separately challenged the import ban at a federal appeals court. A California judge declared a mistrial in Masimo's trade-secret case against Apple in 2023 after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Apple won a minimal $250 verdict against Masimo in Delaware last year over allegations that Masimo's smartwatches infringe two Apple design patents. (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing by Rod Nickel and Andrea Ricci)

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