US Won’t Stop Upcoming Apple Watch Ban | news

Before placing an ECG sensor in the digital crown with the Apple Watch Series 4, there was already a solution from a third-party manufacturer: with the KardiaBand, AliveCor provided the Apple Watch with a special bracelet capable of performing ECG measurements. But the Series 4 made the tape obsolete — and AliveCor found itself infringing its own patents and filed a lawsuit against Apple at the International Trade Commission.

ITC Judges – Patent Office Saves Apple
The verdict came in December 2022: Apple was indeed infringing AliveCor’s patents. However, AliveCor’s lawsuit resulted in another lawsuit before the United States Patent Office to reexamine the validity of the patents cited in the lawsuit. Patents for such processes often turn out to be invalid – often because they are based on previously known inventions. Apple won the case because the Patent Office invalidated important AliveCor patents.

AliveCor disagrees
Of course, AliveCor doesn’t want to accept the Patent Office’s decision — and is appealing. Finally, we need to clarify here whether the patents are valid, so the decision of the International Trade Commission can be enforced. It decreed that Apple would no longer be allowed to sell the Apple Watch in the US because of patent infringement. At the moment, the Patent Office is the only one protecting the Cupertino-based company from a sales freeze because another party does not want to intervene in the International Trade Commission’s ruling:

The White House shows the green light
President Biden has 60 days to block or ratify the International Trade Commission’s decisions. In this process, the White House decided not to intervene. Therefore, if the Patent Office upholds the validity of AliveCor’s patents and reverses the original decision, Apple must immediately stop selling the Apple Watch in the United States.

Financial settlement?
For Apple, this would be a severe blow – and the parties would have to find themselves at the negotiating table. Apple will soon thereafter strike a deal with AliveCor to lift the sales freeze.