Apple Watch Infringes Michigan Professor's Heart-Rate-Monitor Patent, Complaint Alleges
A University of Michigan engineering professor accused Apple of stealing his invention for a wrist-mountable heart-rate monitor and using it in the Apple Watch. Apple is guilty of willful infringement of U.S. patent 10,517,484 because the professor, Mohammed Islam, discussed…
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his then-patent-pending invention with Apple employees in at least three face-to-face meetings in Cupertino, California, between June 2014 and July 2016, alleged his complaint (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Islam offered to license his technology to Apple during the encounters and in follow-up emails, but the company "declined," said the complaint. Apple emailed Islam in December 2017 and abruptly asked him to stop sharing his invention with the company, it said. Islam seeks damages “adequate to compensate for Apple’s infringement,” plus an order “permanently enjoining” the company from further infringement, it said. Apple didn’t comment Monday. Islam’s complaint is at least the second in recent weeks from an academic accusing Apple of misappropriating patents for cardiovascular functionality in the Apple Watch. Dr. Joseph Wiesel, a board-certified cardiologist on the faculty of the New York University School of Medicine, alleged last month that Apple stole his atrial fibrillation-detection invention and built it into the wearable, also after numerous “engagements” with the company in which he tried unsuccessfully to strike a licensing arrangement (see 1912310002).