this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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They're not. Despite some misleading press coverage, Apple never remotely suggested they were removing any hardware. They're just going to start importing them without the "functionality." They're disabling it in the US via software while they go through the legal process. When it's all done, they can activate it for everyone.
As for why they're not paying, Apple's position is that their product does not infringe any patents, and this is not an outlandish position. Apple has already had most of Masimo's patent claims from a dozen total patents invalidated. The ITC ban is a result of a single patent still currently left standing that Apple believes should never have been issued and is working to have invalidated.
I think there's a very good chance Apple succeeds and Masimo is left with no relevant patents. If they go through everything and Masimo is still left with something, at that point Apple can negotiate with them on a reasonable fee, and they'll be doing so from a position of relative strength. Masimo was obviously hoping an ITC ban would cause Apple to blink and pay whatever Masimo wanted. Clearly that didn't happen and Apple would prefer go for total vindication.
Plus it would create a precedent that you can patent troll Apple and they pay up.
Can they pay the patent fee? It may be possible that the patent holder simply doesn’t want to allow Apple to use this technology at all, and is refusing outright.
Thats what the patent system is designed to do.
sometimes an entity may object to the use of their patent for one reason or another, or charge some absurd or unreasonable amount. it's usually some sort of moral or ethical thing.
Really interesting episode of This American Life covered a patent trolling and a lot of the finer points regarding patent law. Episode 441
If you actually read any of the articles about this isssue, you would know this was the result of Apple trying to poach an entire company’s development group to make the same oximeters for them. The normal course for this is to just buy the company whose IP you need instead of, you know, counterfeiting.
Not only is that spitting in the face of regulators, it royally pissed off the remaining engineer C suite at Masimo and god help you if you ever legally wrong an engineer with the power and money to get revenge.