AliveCor CEO Priya Abani argues that Apple has made a habit of taking intellectual property from smaller medical device firms in order to improve the functionalities its Apple Watch. She also believes that Apple has been able to avoid taking accountability for this by “bombarding” smaller companies with litigation it knows they won’t be able to afford a claim that medical IP lawyers have backed up.
Apple persuaded a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a Silicon Valley startup accusing it of illegally monopolizing the U.S. market for heart rate monitoring apps for its Apple Watch. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California, ruled on Tuesday against AliveCor, which had developed an app for detecting irregular heartbeats. It accused Apple of violating the federal Sherman antitrust law and a California unfair competition law.
Apple said in a statement that the lawsuit challenged its ability to make improvements to the Apple Watch that consumers and developers rely on. "Today s outcome confirms that is not anticompetitive," it said.