(Reuters) - A US Patent and Trademark Office court ruled on Tuesday that three patents held by medical device maker AliveCor Inc are invalid, bolstering Apple Inc's defense against a possible ban on Apple Watch imports into a separate but related dispute.
The Board of Patent Trials and Appeals rejected the AliveCor patent at Apple's request based on previous publications claiming to have found a similar innovation in wearable heart monitoring devices.
In June, the US International Trade Commission ruled in a preliminary ruling that the Apple Watch's heart-monitoring capabilities infringed on two patents. The Commission can ban imports of counterfeit Apple Watches if it approves the decision.
The deadline for the ITC to make a final decision is December 12th.
AliveCor Wednesday said it was "deeply disappointed" with Tuesday's decision and would appeal, but was awaiting a separate decision from the ITC.
In a statement on Tuesday, Apple said it appreciated the board's "thorough review" of the patent and that the decision "confirms that the AliveCor patent asserted at the ITC against Apple is invalid."
AliveCor sued Apple in West Texas in 2020 and ITC last year for patent infringement regarding the AliveCor KardiaBand, an Apple Watch accessory that tracks the wearer's heart rate, detects irregularities and takes an electrocardiogram (ECG) to detect possible heart problems such as atria. fibrillation. .
AliveCor, based in Mountain View, California, stopped selling the KardiaBand in 2018 after Apple rolled out its own ECG feature. AliveCor says Apple copied its technology from the Apple Watch Series 4 and separately sued Apple last year in California over alleged monopoly of the US market for its Apple Watch heart-tracking app.
Apple recently attacked AliveCor, filing a lawsuit against the company in federal court in San Francisco on December 2 for alleged patent infringement related to heart rate sensors in electronic devices and other personal health technologies.
The Apple company. vs. AliveCor Inc, Patent Review and Appeals Board, IPR2021-00970, -00971 and -00972.
From Apple: Carl Renner and Jeremy Monaldo of Fish & Richardson.
For AliveCor: James Glass, Andrew Holmes and John McCauley of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
Read more:
Apple is suing AliveCor over the patent as the Apple Watch import ban nears its end
The Apple Watch import ban came into effect after a trade judge found a patent infringement
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