According to reports, in Omni MedSci's lawsuit filed against the Eastern Texas District Court, the company mainly mentioned four patents related to optical technology in wearable devices. These patents can help the device measure and monitor the user's Physiological characteristics.
Specifically, these patents describe methods for measuring different components of a user's blood using LED-based sensor technology. Each patent description covers a wearable device that utilizes specific light sources and receivers such as infrared LED arrays. The module can measure user blood in a non-intrusive manner. At the same time, Apple's Apple Watch also uses similar technology to obtain user heart rate data.
These technologies were originally invented by Islamic Islam. The patent ownership belongs to Omni MedSci, and the registered patent numbers are No. 9651533 and No. 9757040 respectively.
In response, Islamabad demanded that Apple compensate for infringement, litigation costs, and seek an initial or permanent ban on the infringement of a patented product, that is, Apple Watch in this case.
The question remains
According to the contents of the litigation documents, Islamabad joined Dr. Michael O'Relly, an expert in medical technology, who had joined Apple since June 2014, and Apple’s hardware manager, McCreary Hillman, as early as June 2014. MichaelHillman) had a meeting and discussed related patent applications.
Three months later, Apple released Apple Watch in September 2014. Subsequently, Hillman invited Islam to visit Apple's other team in February 2015. At that time, it was less than two months from opening Apple Watch. In the two weeks after this visit, Islamabad modified the patent application he was still applying for and added words such as wearable devices and LED optical sensors.
The litigation documents further pointed out that Greg Joswiak, vice president of product marketing for Apple, had sent an e-mail sent on July 14, 2016 inviting Islam and the Apple team to discuss patent technologies that are still in the application stage. During the meeting on July 18th, Islamabad shared these patents with Apple employees. Furthermore, Islamabad continued to discuss its own patent applications with unnamed Apple personnel after the meeting.
In December last year, Islamem sent an e-mail to Apple executive Raleigh asking him to 'identify' patents 9651533 and 9757040. He also wished to clarify whether these patented technologies had been adopted by Apple Watch.
After that, Raleigh replied Islam's email saying: 'We (Apple) do not want to receive any information about your intellectual property.'
However, the timeline given by Islam in the litigation was questionable because Apple had completed the development of the Apple Watch heart rate sensor before its first meeting with Apple executives in 2014 and the way this sensor works. The details of Apple's reliance on OmniMedSci's patent are doubtful. Instead, Islam's modification of intellectual property after the meeting with the Apple team seemed more worthy of doubt.
Although Apple has not commented on this matter yet, the fact that the company is willing to meet with the founder of this startup suggests that Apple will further study more advanced sensor technology. As Islamic Islam described in all his patents, the laser will be Traditional LED collects blood signals more effectively.
It should be pointed out that this is not the first time that Apple has been sued by the startup for patent issues. Late last year, Israeli startup Corefotonics sued Apple for using its dual camera with the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus. Patent related to camera technology and hiring Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, one of Samsung's Queen's law firms, to file a lawsuit with Apple.
As of now, there is no more news out of this patent litigation.