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Apple faces a new lawsuit over claims it stole another company's idea for on-Watch ECGs

AliveCor's KardiaBand. (Source: AliveCor)
AliveCor's KardiaBand. (Source: AliveCor)
The medical-grade wearables company AliveCor has decided to push for an anti-trust suit against Apple over the manner in which the Cupertino giant has taken over the market for smart watches or bands that support on-device electroechocardiography (ECG). It follows allegations that Apple Watches with this technology infringes on AliveCor's patents.

AliveCor had developed the KardiaBand, a gadget capable of slotting into an Apple Watch's band and sending precision, FDA-approved ECG data to this wearable, with support from the Cupertino company including approval for the necessary Kardia and SmartRhythm apps.

Then, however, as we all now know, Apple turned around and launched the Watch Series 4 with in-built ECG-metrics also of an FDA-certified standard, thereby driving the KardiaBand out of the market. This, at least, is the story from AliveCor's perspective; now, the company plans to make a court case out of it.

Its new petition, submitted to the Northern District of California's jurisdiction, requests that Apple defend itself against these claims in a trial by jury. This is the latest in a series of legal moves on AliveCor's part, which have also included a patent-infringement suit along the same lines and a push to get the Apple Watch taken off shelves. The gains for AliveCor should it win this new case are not clear at this point.

Buy an AliveCor KardiaMobile Personal EKG device on Amazon

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2021 05 > Apple faces a new lawsuit over claims it stole another company's idea for on-Watch ECGs
Deirdre O'Donnell, 2021-05-28 (Update: 2021-05-28)