Apple beats AliveCor lawsuit over heart rate apps for Apple Watch

apple Persuaded a federal judge to dismiss a Silicon Valley startup’s lawsuit accusing it of illegally monopolizing the U.S. market for heart-rate monitoring apps. Apple Watch.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California, ruled against him on Tuesday AliveCorwho developed an app to detect irregular heartbeats.

It accused Apple of violating the federal Sherman antitrust statute and California’s unfair competition statute.

The ruling detailing White’s reasoning is being withheld temporarily due to privacy concerns.

“AliveCor is deeply disappointed and strongly disagrees with the court’s decision to dismiss our anti-competitive case and we intend to appeal,” the company said in a statement.

Apple said in a statement that the lawsuit challenged its ability to make improvements to the Apple Watch that consumers and developers rely on. “Today’s result confirms that it is not competitive,” he said.

In an amended complaint, AliveCor said that Apple assured it that it would collaborate on heart-monitoring technology for the Apple Watch, only to copy its ideas and use “heart rate analysis.” “A concentrated campaign to corner the market” will be launched.

The complaint also accuses Apple of “updating” the heart rate algorithm for its watches, to prevent third parties from identifying irregular heartbeats and offering competing apps.

AliveCor developed the CardiaBand, a wristband for the Apple Watch capable of recording an electrocardiogram, or ECG.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company also developed the Cardia app for analyzing ECG readings on Apple Watches and an artificial intelligence-powered SmartRhythm heart rate analysis app.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has denied wrongdoing and says competitors have no right to dictate its design decisions.

AliveCor is still suing Apple over separate patent infringement claims.

The case is AliveCor Inc v Apple Inc, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 21-03958.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

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