The Apple Watch is one of the most popular products of the Apple companybut sales in the United States may be affected in the future due to legal issues with the medical device manufacturer AliveCorwho sued the company for patents.

The relationship and ensuing conflict between these companies began in 2015, when AliveCor, a to start of Mountain View, California, which employs about 150 people, shared its wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor with Apple for the first time.

At the time, AliveCor indicated that it had a good relationship with the Silicon Valley giant and sold an ECG accessory for the Apple Watch. However, Apple released its Apple Watch Series 4 in 2018 with a built-in ECG sensor. and made third-party heart monitoring software incompatible with the product, forcing AliveCor to discontinue sales of its product.

Even the Apple Watch feature was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to Apple, your smart watch It was the first mass consumer device to offer such a feature.and can be purchased by anyone.

For example, in 2021 AliveCor accused Apple of stealing its electrocardiogram technology to integrate it into the Apple Watch. The company specifically targeted those led by Tim Cook for violating three of his patents.

“We are creating new technologies, and instead of the ecosystem allowing us to thrive and build on the innovations we already have, Apple is killing us upfront, stealing our technology, using the power of its platform to scale it upand now it actually says it’s scaled so it can’t be cut,” he told the paper. The hill Priya Abani, CEO of Alive Cor.

Following the claim to the authorities, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in December 2022 that Apple has infringed AliveCor’s patents for portable electrocardiograms.

In the ruling, the ITC recommended a limited exclusion order and a cease and desist order for Apple Watch models with electrocardiogram functions. If applied, that would mean that Apple would no longer be able to import the Apple Watch for sale in the US with those capabilities.

In spite of everything, the administration of the president Joe Biden had a 60-day window to decide whether to veto the import ban. In addition, the commission set a $2 bond for each infringing Apple device imported during the presidential review period, which it also suspended during appeals against the decision of the US Patent and Trademark Office Are pending.

In the end, the Biden administration decided not to veto the ITC’s decision.

“We applaud President Biden for upholding the ITC ruling and holding Apple accountable for violating the patents that underpin our leading ECG technology,” Abani said in a statement to The edge.

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In any case, AliveCor has not yet won the caseas the situation is still in the hands of the US Patent and Trademark Office, which the Patent Trial and Appeal Board also ruled in December all three patents allegedly infringed by Apple are invalid.

AliveCor has appealed the decision to the Patent Office and is awaiting a response. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch import block cannot be applied yet.