Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC in a statement shared on live television that Apple has no intention to license Masimo’s patents. While it seemed likely that was the case, the company hadn’t said as much publicly until now.
“We’re focused on appeal,” Cook’s statement said. “There’s lots of reasons to buy the watch even without the blood oxygen sensor.”
Apple is more than happy to leverage such patents when it sees fit. They’re just throwing a tantrum because they finally ran into a small corporation that they couldn’t intimidate.
I don’t see how intimidation has anything to do with it. If you think the patent is BS and you have the financial resources to actually fight it, it’s good to fight it. It’s better for everyone when patents that shouldn’t have been issued are invalidated.
If you don’t think intimidation has anything to do with it, then you haven’t read anything about this or similar incidents and really shouldn’t be discussing the topic. Apple has a long history of leveraging soft and hard power, economic and otherwise, to force and coerce smaller players into one-sided deals or else. Apple is pissed here because it’s usage of the power dynamic failed to extort everything it wanted from Mossimo.
I wouldn’t really bucket masimo into the little guy” team- from my time in healthcare, they are really not an ethical company due to their aggressively high pricing on simple products only they produce, stifling competition through artificial lockouts and patent trolling.
They are absolutely a “little guy” when Apple calls on the phone. And it is a gross mischaracterization to describe them as a “patent troll.” They do not collect patents for pure litigation purposes nor do the seek to use litigation to extort under the color of law for patents they do not use or plan to use.
To be clear, no one who lives in this space is a good actor with completely clean hands; however, it’s just not true to paint Masimo in this light.