According to foreign media reports, U.S.-based health technology startup Omni MedSci claimed in a patent complaint recently filed with the court that Apple still implanted its Apple Watch heart rate sensor in its Apple Watch after learning of a patent application by Omni's founder and chief technology officer Dr. Mohammed N. Islam. The patent lawsuit was brought to the court after Dr. Mohammed N. Islam, the founder and chief technology officer of Omni, filed a patent application for his Apple Watch heart rate sensor.
It was reported that in the lawsuit filed by Omni MedSci in the Eastern Texas District Court, the company cited four patents related to optical technology in wearable devices, which help the devices measure and monitor a user's physiological characteristics. user's physiological characteristics.
Specifically, the patents describe methods for measuring different components, parameters of a user's blood using LED-based sensor technology. Each patent description covers a wearable device that utilizes a specific light source, such as an infrared LED array, and a receiver module to be able to measure a user's blood in a non-invasive manner. Meanwhile, Apple's Apple Watch employs similar technology to obtain user heart rate data.
These technologies were first invented by Islam, and the patents are owned by Omni MedSci, registered under numbers 9651533 and 9757040, respectively.
In response, Islam is seeking damages from Apple for infringement, litigation costs, and a preliminary or permanent injunction against the product that infringes on the patents, in this case the Apple Watch.
According to the contents of the lawsuit filing, Islam joined with Michael O'Relly, a medical technology expert who had joined Apple earlier that same year, back in June 2014 ( Dr. Michael O'Relly), as well as Apple hardware manager Michael Hillman, to meet and discuss the patent application in question.
Three months later, Apple announced the Apple Watch in September 2014, and Hillman then invited Islam to visit another Apple team in February 2015, less than two months before pre-orders for the AppleWatch opened. Two weeks after that visit, Islam amended his still-pending patent application to include words such as wearable devices and LED optical sensors.
The lawsuit filing further states that Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of product marketing, had invited Islam to discuss the patented technology, which was still in the application stage, with Apple's team in a July 14, 2016, email. In a meeting held on July 18, Islam shared the patents with Apple employees. And, Islam continued to discuss the status of his patent applications with unnamed Apple personnel after the meeting.
Last December, Islam emailed Apple executive Reilly, asking him to "identify" patents 9651533 and 9757040 and seeking clarification on whether the patented technologies had been adopted for the Apple Watch.
Afterward, Reilly replied to Islam's email saying, "We [Apple] do not want to receive any information about you regarding your intellectual property."
Only, the timeline Islam gave in his lawsuit is questionable. That's because Apple had already completed development of its Apple Watch heart-rate sensor before its first meeting with Apple executives in 2014, and the way that sensor works was detailed at the Apple Watch's unveiling event. Thus, claims that Apple relied on the OmniMedSci patents are questionable. Instead, Islam's behavior in modifying the intellectual property after meeting with Apple's team seems to be even more questionable to outsiders.
While Apple has yet to comment on the matter, the fact that the company was willing to meet with the startup's founder suggests further research into more advanced sensor technology. As Islam describes in all of his patents, lasers would collect blood signals more efficiently than traditional LEDs.
It should be noted that this is long past the first time Apple has been sued by a startup over patents. Late last year, Israeli startup Corephotonics sued Apple for using its patents related to dual camera technology for smartphones in the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus, and hired QuinnEmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, one of Samsung's royal law firms, to work with Apple in a lawsuit.
As of now, no more news has trickled out of this patent lawsuit.
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