Apple wins in Masimo lawsuit, but its a shallow victory

The protracted legal wrangling between Apple and health wearable company Masimo has resulted in a nominal win for the tech giant – but failed to achieve its objectives.

Apple and Masimo have been engaged in tit-for-tat lawsuits over technologies and designs used in their smartwatch devices and, in this case, Apple had been hoping to secure an injunction on the sale of Masimo's medical devices in the US.

As it turned out, Masimo beat all but three of the patent infringement claims brought by Apple at the conclusion of a five-day federal jury trial and the judgment will not affect Masimo's sales at all, making it a shallow victory.

The lawsuit does not relate to litigation between the two companies focusing on the use of pulse oximetry sensors in some Apple Watches, which resulted in a temporary injunction on the sale of some of the range towards the end of last year and subsequent removal of the blood oxygen measurement tech on new devices.

Masimo sells a range of devices used for patient monitoring that feature a proprietary pulse oximetry technology called Signal Extraction Technology (SET). In the latest update on that patent spat, Apple indicated it would be seeking an appeal rather than taking a license to the tech from Masimo.

In the latest lawsuit, Apple was awarded $250 in damages – the statutory minimum, which was what the company sought in its complaint. Lawyers for the company said the main intention was not to win damages but to prevent the sale of Masimo's smartwatches, so it was a failure on that score.

Apple brought a series of patent infringement claims over various design elements in Masimo devices, seeking a broad block on sales. The jury rejected most of these but did find in favour of Apple on two patents applying to one piece of health software used on a Masimo smartwatch and a charger device.

The problem for Apple is that those infringements are related to an older product that is no longer on sale, rendering calls for an injunction moot.

As might be expected, both companies have claimed victory in the lawsuit.

"Apple primarily sought an injunction against Masimo's current products, and the jury's verdict is a victory for Masimo on that issue," said the healthtech company in its statement on the outcome.

Apple meanwhile said that it was pleased with the finding that Masimo "wilfully infringed Apple's patented designs," adding that its rival "took shortcuts, launching a device that copies Apple Watch and infringes our intellectual property."