Apple convinced a federal jury on Friday that Masimo’s smartwatches violated two of its design patents.
The jury in Delaware agreed with Apple that Masimo’s W1 and Freedom watches and chargers wilfully violated Apple’s patent rights in smartwatch designs, and awarded the company $250 in damages.
In the recently decided lawsuit, Apple accused Masimo of infringing two of its own design patents in 2022 to “make way for its own watch.”
The jury found Masimo guilty of the charge for its prior Freedom and W1 smartwatches, but not guilty of infringing on any current devices.
It gave Apple only $250 in damages, the bare minimum for infringement.
Apple said in a statement that it was pleased that the ruling “will protect the innovations we advance on behalf of our customers.”
Masimo said that “Apple primarily sought an injunction against Masimo’s current products, and the jury’s verdict is a victory for Masimo on that issue.”
The two companies have been fighting over smartwatch health technology.
Masimo has previously accused Apple of recruiting away its workers and duplicating parts of its pulse oximetry technology after unsuccessful collaboration talks.
Masimo sued Apple in 2021, alleging it of infringing on many of its light-based blood-oxygen monitoring patents; Apple countersued a year later.
In 2023, a court ruled in favour of Masimo, compelling Apple to halt sales of its most recent wristwatch models after the US International Trade Commission barred all Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 imports inside the country.
The company appealed and was eventually able to sell its watches in the country earlier this year after removing the technology from the models available in the United States.
We earlier reported that Apple and Goldman Sachs were ordered by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Wednesday to pay over $89 million for improperly handling customer complaints about Apple Card transactions.
