Published in Mobiles

Start-up takes on Jobs’ Mob

by on24 May 2023


David versus Goliath

The Tame Apple Press is fuming that a start-up is daring to say that it invented something Apple put on its iWatch.

Khosla Ventures put itself on a collision course with Apple when it moved into the personal health and fitness space a decade ago and invested in AliveCor, a maker of cardiac monitoring devices and software. The idea was that it could do well as punters wanted more health-tracking stuff on their watches.

Khosla claims that iPhone maker copied its heart-monitoring technology and then sabotaged AliveCor's ability to offer its product on the Apple Watch. Apple has parried with claims that its smaller rival's patent-infringement and antitrust claims are meritless -- and claims AliveCor is the imitator.

The Tame Apple Press is on the side of Goliath with this story. One magazine claiming that it is an “unwritten rule for technology startups: Never challenge Apple in court if you want to survive.” (It isn’t)

Another magazine said that Khosla was just upset that “instead of riding Apple's coattails” as a prominent player in the wearable medical device market, forecast to grow to $132.5 billion by 2031, AliveCor's Food and Drug Administration-approved technology is inaccessible to the tens of millions of people who buy Apple Watches.

But it is starting to look like this case will not go Apple’s way, even if it has taken three years to get to this point. Already, the ITC has decided that Job’s Mob nicked the idea. Although the US Patents Office was not so sure.

One of the sticking points is that Apple knew about the technology before it released its own iWatch. However, it abandoned the talks 18 months before releasing its own version.

 

Last modified on 24 May 2023
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