It’s been almost a year since Apple was discovered to have infringed a Masimo patent for the low-power pulse oximeter features used in the Apple Watch.
At the time, the company was ordered to pay $634 million in damages, but a federal judge has now ordered it to pay an additional $184 million in interest…
Apple had been battling with healthcare technology company Masimo on a couple of fronts. The most serious of these was the International Trade Commission’s decision that Apple would have to remove the blood oxygen feature in two Apple Watch models in 2023 to allow them to be sold in the United States. The Cupertino company was forced to redesign how the feature worked in order to bring the devices to the United States.
But the company also faced a lawsuit from Masimo, seeking damages for using its patented approach to measure blood oxygen in an energy-efficient way. Apple was found to have infringed this patent and was ordered to pay damages equal to the license fee it would have had to pay.
Bloomberg Law reports that Apple has now been ordered to pay a further £184 million in interest on this sum.
Judge James V. Selna rejected Apple’s argument that the award of interest would constitute a windfall for Masimo, citing U.S. Supreme Court guidance that “interest from the time royalty payments are received merely serves to compensate the patent owner.”
There was Some good news for Apple. Masimo had requested interest calculated at 7%, but the judge rejected the request, saying that the interest rate should instead be equivalent to that paid on Massimo’s loan. However, the annual compounding still added a total of $184 million to the amount owed.
Via MacRumors
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