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Apple Watch imports banned in America - Patents issues!
(www.cnn.com)
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this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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Apple is one of the most valuable companies on the planet.
Why are they just outright stripping this feature instead of just paying the patent fee? (As in literally removing the chips, actually stripping it.)
Are the patent fees so astronomical that it would put even Apple Computer, one of the most highly valued companies in existence, in line for bankruptcy? Or am I missing something and this wasn't an option, that the patent owners don't want to be paid, but just to be in control?
If Apple can afford the patent fees, it shows how ridiculously wasteful and petty corporations can choose to be.
If Apple can't afford the patent fees, it's more of an indictment of the patent system itself, if the largest and most valuable company on the planet can be dismantled via patent fees.
Either way, this is a bad fucking look.
It's always interesting how patent holders act like this protects people ("safety") when arguably it just denies people access to their functioning patented device, instead possibly relying on devices that don't function as well or no devices at all. Isn't it less safe to not be using an industry-standard?
They're not. Despite some misleading press coverage, Apple never remotely suggested they were removing any hardware. They're just going to start importing them without the "functionality." They're disabling it in the US via software while they go through the legal process. When it's all done, they can activate it for everyone.
As for why they're not paying, Apple's position is that their product does not infringe any patents, and this is not an outlandish position. Apple has already had most of Masimo's patent claims from a dozen total patents invalidated. The ITC ban is a result of a single patent still currently left standing that Apple believes should never have been issued and is working to have invalidated.
I think there's a very good chance Apple succeeds and Masimo is left with no relevant patents. If they go through everything and Masimo is still left with something, at that point Apple can negotiate with them on a reasonable fee, and they'll be doing so from a position of relative strength. Masimo was obviously hoping an ITC ban would cause Apple to blink and pay whatever Masimo wanted. Clearly that didn't happen and Apple would prefer go for total vindication.
Plus it would create a precedent that you can patent troll Apple and they pay up.
Can they pay the patent fee? It may be possible that the patent holder simply doesn’t want to allow Apple to use this technology at all, and is refusing outright.
I wasn't even sure that was possible? I guess it just seems a little antithetical to the idea of patents to just be able to wholesale ban another party from even using it at all.
Thats what the patent system is designed to do.
sometimes an entity may object to the use of their patent for one reason or another, or charge some absurd or unreasonable amount. it's usually some sort of moral or ethical thing.
Really interesting episode of This American Life covered a patent trolling and a lot of the finer points regarding patent law. Episode 441
If you actually read any of the articles about this isssue, you would know this was the result of Apple trying to poach an entire company’s development group to make the same oximeters for them. The normal course for this is to just buy the company whose IP you need instead of, you know, counterfeiting.
Not only is that spitting in the face of regulators, it royally pissed off the remaining engineer C suite at Masimo and god help you if you ever legally wrong an engineer with the power and money to get revenge.