After iPhone, Apple (AAPL) is now facing legal troubles for its luxury Smartwatch. A report from Axios states that the Michigan-based tech startup Omni Sciences claims that Apple has violated on its patent technology – the heart rate sensor technology available in the tech giant’s smartwatch. Omni Sciences accuses that the heart rate sensors present within the Apple Watch is basically made on stolen technology. Apple is yet to verify on these assertions.
Omni Sciences, a developer of broadband lasers, argues that it had carried out several discussions with the iPhone maker’s product marketing VP, hardware designer and medical technology specialist between 2014 and 2016 on incorporating the patented technologies in the company’s products. The startup blames Apple for abruptly ending its talks on a future partnership, and for using the company’s technology in Apple Watch without cementing their relationship.
Apart from Apple, Islam has attacked other tech mammoths like Nokia, Siemens, and Huwaei
The founder of Omni Sciences, Mohammed Islam, has more than 120 patents. He claims that Apple violated four of his patents. All these four refer to the wearable device that has a light source and in a few cases, near-infrared LED arrays that are used to capture a person’s blood measurements. One of the patents is about using the light source to monitor glucose, and rumors earlier did state that Apple has been working on developing a watch sensor that monitors blood sugar levels.
Apart from Apple, Islam has attacked other tech mammoths like Nokia, Siemens, and Huwaei. As far as Apple is concerned, he is seeking damages and is fighting for a ban on the sales of the company’s smartwatch. The lawsuit has been filed at the patent-friendly jurisdiction- the Eastern District of Texas.
This lawsuit arrives at a time when several other applications like eBay, Instagram, Twitter, and Amazon, have ditched the Apple watch development and eliminated their watch OS apps. Given the fact that, Apple’s heart rate sensors on the company’s smartwatch have been famous globally and with the delay in filing the lawsuit, it will be interesting to see how this lawsuit will play out.