Apple to halt Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 sales in the US this week Apple Watch

https://9to5mac.com/2023/12/18/apple-halting-apple-watch-series-9-and-apple-watch-ultra-2-sales/

3.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

Masimo invented modern small scale oximeters and have been selling them for far longer than Apple has. They’re used in every NICU in the country. They probably have a legitimate claim here and definitely aren’t patent trolls.

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u/MC_chrome Dec 18 '23

They probably have a legitimate claim here

TIL strapping an O2 monitor to your wrist counts as an "original invention or idea"

20

u/L0nz Dec 18 '23

It is if that o2 monitor uses the LED-based pulse oximetry for which Masimo holds the patent. Apple was free to invent a new method of noninvasively measuring blood oxygen if they wanted to.

13

u/FurriedCavor Dec 18 '23

Why do you take such personal umbrage, it’s just business brotha

15

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '23

[deleted]

-4

u/FocusPerspective Dec 18 '23

Yes. Some people are absolutely obsessed with Apple, casting them as the villain in every scenario, parroting BS legends they learned from social media as if they were facts.

It really is creepy how much of their personality hating Apple is.

1

u/Rarelyimportant Dec 18 '23

I agree, but it's nowhere near as creepy as how much of your personality defending Apple is.

16

u/SoldantTheCynic Dec 18 '23

It is. There are literal fabric wrap-around SpO2 monitors that Masimo have a hand in just as an example - my extremely expensive Corpuls 3 prehospital defibrillator/monitor also has Masimo branded pulse oximetry probes.

Apple enforces its patents too, this sub usually doesn’t give a shit in that case, so it would be hypocritical to complain about another company enforcing its patents just because it disrupts your favourite electric fruit company’s designs.

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u/MC_chrome Dec 18 '23

I just fail to see how adding a strap to something is ever construed as an "original idea", because its not.

It isn't a well-kept secret that the US Patent system is in desperate need of reform, and is open to abuse by pretty much anyone (ever heard of VirnetX?)

11

u/SoldantTheCynic Dec 18 '23

What you fail to see probably isn’t relevant given the court decided that Apple infringed on Masimo’s patents, which relates to light-based pulse oximetry. I’m not sure why you’re so hung up on “adding a strap”.

1

u/Jophus Dec 18 '23

Courts didn’t decide anything. The ITC made a ruling. The one thing that went to the courts ended as a mistrial because 1 juror sided with Masimo and 6 jurors sided with Apple.

4

u/SillySoundXD Dec 18 '23

TIL having a rectangle object with rounded corners is "original invention or idea"

-3

u/carlosvega Dec 18 '23

Every patent is basically putting some atoms in a particular disposition and optionally pass electrons through it.

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u/ankercrank Dec 18 '23

Patenting the idea of having an O2 monitor on your wrist is hardly worthy of a patent.

18

u/L0nz Dec 18 '23

If you'd bothered to do even 30 secs of research, you'd find out that this isn't what the patent is for

-5

u/ankercrank Dec 18 '23

You know, it's funny. I read 7 articles about this ruling and not a single one named the specifics of the patent. Since you're an expert, why don't you tell me what the patent says.

13

u/L0nz Dec 18 '23

Plenty of articles list the two patent numbers in question, and from there Google is your friend

https://patents.google.com/patent/US10912502B2/en

https://patents.google.com/patent/US10945648B2/en

-9

u/ankercrank Dec 18 '23

Show me an article that mentioned it.

Also, those patents aren’t for a watch, they’re just generally for using an LED to measure various things, which is super broad.

3

u/sionnach Dec 18 '23

You’re nearly there … keep thinking!

-1

u/ankercrank Dec 18 '23

Nice low-effort comment. Keep up the snark!

-13

u/caedin8 Dec 18 '23

Saving lives should be more important than corporate profits. We shouldn’t pull life saving tech from millions of people’s watches to ensure the right company gets paid.

Apple Watch has the tech to see heart attacks in real time right now, and based on number of Apple Watches sold, and then dividing that by half for a conservative estimate, and multiplying by the average heart attack rate per million people in the U.S., we can estimate 200,000 to 300,000 heart attacks every year to someone wearing an Apple Watch.

If the watch could save even just 5 to 10 minutes response time for those people they’d probably save over a 10,000 to 20,000 lives every year.

The tech is there, it’s already being worn, yet we let these people die every year because of corporate profits.

We should hold a higher standard, and think about what kind of society we want to live in.

10

u/slightlybitey Dec 18 '23

If saving lives is more important than corporate profits, should Apple be forced to give away watches for free? Is that sustainable?

Will corporations continue to invest in developing life-saving tech if they know competitors can take it and profit from their labour?

Utilitarian calculus has to include second order effects.

19

u/thiskillstheredditor Dec 18 '23

Apple could have paid to license Masimo’s tech like many other companies do. They’re the most valuable company in the world. Instead they chose to ignore it.

By your logic, Apple should be selling their watches at cost to get them on as many wrists as possible. They’d include oximeters in every watch, not just the premium line. They’re a corporation whose main goal is profit, not a charity.

7

u/aristar Dec 18 '23

Why doesnt apple sell them at cost then if corporate profits should be ignored?

-7

u/caedin8 Dec 18 '23

If a corporation can release a product that saves lives we should encourage that and allow them to profit. What we shouldn’t do is prevent saving lives so that a corporation who came up with an idea can prevent the world from receiving the benefit

3

u/Mission-Reasonable Dec 18 '23

This argument is so dumb it must be a joke.

2

u/aristar Dec 18 '23

Apple is making money from the watches, they can pay a licensing fee to the company that holds the patent, like everyone else