Nov 14 (Reuters) — A federal jury in California ruled on Friday that Apple (AAPL.O) must pay $634 million to medical-technology company Masimo (MASI.O) for infringing a patent related to blood-oxygen monitoring.
Jurors found that certain Apple Watch features — including workout mode and heart-rate notifications — violated Masimo’s patent rights, the company said. A Masimo spokesperson noted that although the company has brought more than two dozen patent claims against Apple over the last six years, most were deemed invalid. The patent at issue in this case, the spokesperson added, expired in 2022 and involved “historic patient-monitoring technology from decades ago.”
In a statement, Masimo called the verdict “a significant win in our ongoing efforts to protect our innovations and intellectual property.”
The case is part of a broader, years-long legal battle between Apple and the Irvine, California–based medical device maker, which has accused Apple of poaching employees and misappropriating Masimo’s pulse-oximetry technology for use in Apple Watches.
That dispute previously prompted the U.S. International Trade Commission to block imports of Apple’s Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches in 2023 after finding infringement of Masimo’s patents. Apple subsequently removed blood-oxygen features from the devices to avoid the ban, later rolling out an updated sensor design in August with approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
On Friday, the ITC said it would open a new proceeding to determine whether the updated watches should also fall under the import ban. Masimo has an ongoing lawsuit challenging Customs’ approval, while Apple is separately contesting the original ITC ban at the U.S. Court of Appeals.
In an earlier branch of the conflict, a California judge declared a mistrial in Masimo’s 2023 trade-secret lawsuit after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision. Apple, meanwhile, won a symbolic $250 verdict against Masimo in Delaware last year over claims that Masimo’s smartwatches infringed two Apple design patents.
