AliveCor, which brings electrocardiogram technology to wearables, is suing Apple for allegedly copying AliveCor's idea for a heart rate analyzer function for the Apple Watch and cornering the market, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California May 26.
Five details:
- The lawsuit said that AliveCor developed a wristband for Apple Watch that could record ECGs. Apple approved the design for distribution in the app store and advertised AliveCor's innovation to sell more Apple Watches, the lawsuit alleges.
- AliveCor later discovered that Apple was developing an app to record ECGs on the Apple Watch, as well as provide a separate app for heart health analysis, AliveCor said.
- After AliveCor started selling its apps in Apple's app store, Apple claimed the app violated app store guidelines. When AliveCor pushed back, Apple rewrote the rules so that AliveCor would violate the newly written rules, the lawsuit alleges.
- To gain an unfair advantage, Apple would make unannounced updates to the Apple Watch so that AliveCor would be inoperable with the software updates, which "put countless AliveCor users' lives in danger," the lawsuit said. These actions from Apple made AliveCor remove its heart analysis app from Apple's store, it said. Today, Apple commands a 100 percent share of heart rate analysis apps on watchOS devices, according to court documents.
- The lawsuit is AliveCor's latest action in accusing Apple of infringing on ECG technology. In April, AliveCor filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission. AliveCor said filing the complaint "is one step, among others, AliveCor is taking to obtain relief for Apple's intentional copying of AliveCor's patented technology."
Becker's Hospital Review reached out to Apple for comment and will update the article with any additional information.