Apple Watch Series 9
AliveCor filed a lawsuit alleging that Apple's change to the heart rate algorithm on the Apple Watch is anti-competitive and it lost.
Apple has seen numerous patent and antitrust lawsuits related to Apple Watch technology in recent years, including AliveCor. A patent lawsuit involving ECG technology is still ongoing, but a judge has ruled in Apple's favor in an antitrust case.
In a statement provided to 9to5Mac, an Apple spokesperson shared the results of the antitrust case. Apple won't have to go through a full trial to determine whether the antitrust allegations are true.
“Our Apple teams continually innovate to create products and services that provide users with health, wellness and life-saving features. The AliveCor lawsuit challenges Apple's ability to improve important features of Apple Watch that consumers and developers rely on it, and today's result confirms that it is not anticompetitive. We thank the Court for its careful consideration of this case and will continue to protect the innovations we advance on behalf of our clients from frivolous claims.”
The lawsuit was related with Apple's update to its heart rate data collection algorithm in watchOS 5. It has moved from a heart rate path optimizer algorithm to a heart rate neural network.
AliveCor said the algorithm change degraded the SmartRhythm feature and wanted Apple to keep the original algorithm available to developers. Apple said the new algorithm was more accurate and rejected the request, leading to the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White issued summary judgment in favor of Apple. However, details of this decision will not be published later.
