Apple wins $250 in Masimo smartwatch patent case

The legal battle between Apple and the medical technology company Masimo continues, and the big company is – sorta, kinda – winning the latest prize. A judge agreed with Apple that previous versions of Masimo’s W1 and Freedom (pictured above) infringed its patents, according to Reuters. It awarded Apple only $250 in damages, the smallest amount that can be awarded for patent infringement, but the company’s lawyers reportedly told the court that it wasn’t after the money anyway.

What Apple wanted, worth 3.5 trillion, was the sales order for Masimo’s smart watch models. However, the judge ruled that those new models do not infringe on Apple’s intellectual property. That’s why Masimo is also taking the jury’s decision as a win, telling the news organization that it appreciates the decision “in favor of Masimo and Apple on almost every issue.” Apparently, the decision only affects the “disconnected module and charger.” As for Apple, it told Reuters that “it is good that the judge’s decision today will protect new things [it advances] instead of [its] customers.”

Masimo sued Apple in 2021, accusing it of infringing its light-based blood oxygen monitoring patents, while the tech giant countered a year later. The court sided with Masimo in 2023, forcing Apple to halt sales of its latest smartwatch models, as the US International Trade Commission blocked all sales of the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the country. The company applied and was finally able to sell its watches in the country earlier this year by removing the technology from the US-based units.