Big win for the little guy. Apple needs to pay the people what they're owed.
This is a probably the least notable feature of the Apple Watch. If you live at a normal altitude and are healthy, your blood oxygen will be >95% all the time.
They are not the little guy. Their patents for the O2 sensor are also incredibly general.
Breaking the law isn't when the offended party is only children, grandmas and puppies instead of other corporations.
Next time they should try the legal way of doing business, like paying to license IP like everyone else. Stealing is bad m'kay.
It's not the people's fault they loose access to the tech if Apple hasn't paid the ones who invented it. Apple also has access to the tech, they need to pay for it, and not sell people tech they don't have rights over.
The ITC decision will not require Apple to remove the functionality from anyone's devices.
Doctors' work is also a net benefit to society, yet we still pay them handsomely because nobody works for free, nor do companies develop IP for free.
If Apple cared about the net benefit to society or at least its customers who buy their products, they should have just paid to license the apropriate IP. It's not like they're short on cash.
I’m not saying that happened here - but it might have. Most patents are dumb.
I bet my money every single company out there is abusing the patent system. Apple famously patented "slide to unlock" and B&O's own scroll wheel invention for their iPod.
Everyone can agree the patent system is broken in many ways and leads to the sorry state of today where if everyone is abusing it and you don't then you loose out so you have to abuse it too, to stay in the race. It's a tragedy of the commons.
See the comment they were replying to for why they said that. The size is exactly the point if they're being characterised by size.
Also curious as these appear to be dated in 2021 but the Apple Watch 6 with pulse oximeter came out in 2020. Unless there is something different about the "latest" watches.
But you can patent inventions that do exist but are crap. Many inventions are crap, and that's okay. If you have a bad invention, you still have an invention.
Edit: change of tone
It doesn't. It's not you vs Big HN. Stop talking like it. It's just some people with different opinions.
> It doesn't. It's not you vs Big HN. Stop talking like it. It's just some people with different opinions.
Did your parent (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39033027) change their comment? It doesn't currently say what you quoted, only:
> Maybe if they would read blood oxygen levels legally, using IP they legally licensed, it wouldn't be a problem.
I’m on Apple’s side on this. If it were a company other than Apple, I’d also be in that company’s side on this. Masimo isn’t a patent troll, but I don’t see how that $6B company can claim to own tech that’s been in wide use for several decades.
Because we aren't using 1970's tech anymore today. Pulse-ox tech improved a lot since then and that means more new patents. That's like saying "it blows my mind Audi's fuel stratified injection is locked up in patents because we've been driving cars since the 1910's".
>In 1995, Masimo introduced Signal Extraction Technology (SET) that could measure accurately during patient motion and low perfusion by separating the arterial signal from the venous and other signals.
>A noninvasive method that allows continuous measurement of the dyshemoglobins is the pulse CO-oximeter, which was built in 2005 by Masimo.
>In 2007, Masimo introduced the first measurement of the pleth variability index (PVI), which multiple clinical studies have shown provides a new method for automatic, noninvasive assessment of a patient's ability to respond to fluid administration.