Medical tech company Masimo is suing Apple for allegedly stealing its non-invasive health monitoring tech to use for the company's Apple Watch, according to a Jan. 9 Bloomberg report.
Masimo and its spinoff company Cercacor Laboratories claim Apple infringed 10 of the companies' patents, including technology to measure blood oxygen levels as well as the use of light emitters to detect heart rate, according to the report.
In the lawsuit, Masimo and Cercacor claim that Apple poached two of the company's key employees, Michael O'Reilly, Masimo's former CMO, and Marcelo Lamego, Cercacor's former CTO. Masimo and Cercacor agreed to meet with Apple in 2013, after the tech giant reached out for a potential collaboration. Masimo claims Apple said it wanted "to understand more about Masimo's technology to potentially integrate that technology into Apple's products," the publication reports.
After meeting with Masimo and Cercacor, Apple hired Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Lamego, who each knew sensitive information about the companies. The lawsuit claims Mr. Lamego began "pursuing patent applications for things that he learned at the companies, according to the report.
Masimo and Cercacor are requesting orders that would prohibit Apple from further use of their patented inventions in the Apple Watch 4 and 5 and require the tech giant to return confidential information privy to the companies. Apple did not return Bloomberg's request for comment.
Last month, Apple was sued by Joseph Wiesel, MD, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Health, for the Apple Watch's irregular heartbeat monitoring tool, which he claims infringes on a patent he holds for similar technology.