Last week, the Biden administration decided not to veto a recent International Trade Commission (ITC) decision that would result in a ban on Apple Watch imports.
The ITC dismissed Apple's claim that it had copied the heart-monitoring technology of California-based firm AliveCor in December of last year. For those who are unaware, many Apple Watch models feature ECG sensors from the tech titan. In the end, Apple's efforts to influence the Biden administration to prevent the prospective import ban were unsuccessful.
The federal appeals court will now decide whether or not Apple Watches will be prohibited from being imported internationally. AliveCor shared its technology with Apple in 2015 in an effort to forge a business relationship with the well-known tech company.
But when Apple added built-in heart rate monitoring sensors to the Apple Watch in 2018 and barred outside apps like AliveCor from accessing the sensor's data, things took a sharp turn.
However given that appeals to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board often take between 12 and 18 months to complete, it is anticipated that the import restriction appeal procedure will be finished some time in 2019. This indicates that there won't be a temporary import ban on the Apple Watch.
The Hill recently reported that although Apple hasn't expressed any interest in settling, AliveCor is prepared to do so and licence its heart monitoring technology to the tech giant. The California-based startup AliveCor further asserted that Apple, through a single update, barred competitors from operating and prevented AliveCor consumers from receiving heart monitoring data.
An ITC court decided last month that Apple had not violated a patent for pulse oximeter sensors owned by the medical technology company Masimo. When the issue is heard by the commission later this year, it might lead to yet another import ban on Apple Watch models that make use of the technology.
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