[hn_throwaway_99]

I've seen tons of articles/posts about this recently, but does anyone have any links to any good articles that describe the patent(s) in question, and what the arguments are about (a) whether this patent is truly novel (I've heard tons of "pulse oximetry is decades old" arguments, but nothing about the specifics of these patents) and (b) whether Apple is or isn't infringing on the specific details?

I'm sure this kind of analysis must be out there, but I searched through a couple of posts and lots of comment threads and primarily saw a lot of conjecture but no actual references to what was really under debate.

[jjcm]

I too would be curious. That said, it's worth noting here that Masimo[0] is an actual company that produces pulse oximetry devices, not a patent troll.

[0] https://www.masimo.com/

[Sakos]

Real companies are granted patents for trivial ideas all the time. Massimo not being a patent troll doesn't mean much.

[brianpan]

Masimo claims Apple had project to emulate or obtain their tech without paying them, including poaching employees. Apple hired their CTO Marcelo Lamego.

“In the first two weeks that Lamego was at Apple, he filed 12 patents for medical and sensor technologies for the Watch. Though he would only stay at the company for six months, Lamego would be named as an inventor on many more.”

https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-10-05...

[AlbertCory]

What you think you want is the "patent prosecution history." I say "think" because it's kinda "all hope abandon, ye who enter here." Go to uspto.gov and prepare to be perplexed.

You can be sure the issues of novelty and non-obviousness were argued there. Does that mean they'll be clear to you? Heh.

Pro tip: the history is in reverse chronological order. Any doc that's only one page, you can probably ignore. All the arguments are in multi-page PDF's.

[notatoad]

here's the patents in question:

- "Multiple wavelength sensor substrate" https://patents.google.com/patent/US7761127B2/en

- "Physiological monitoring devices, systems, and methods" https://patents.google.com/patent/US10687745B1/en

- "User-worn device for noninvasively measuring a physiological parameter of a user" https://patents.google.com/patent/US10945648B2/en, https://patents.google.com/patent/US10912502B2/en, https://patents.google.com/patent/US10912501B2/en