Consumers would care… all prices flow back to the consumer… if Masimo is ask for $100 per device plus rights to future competing Apple patents, your Apple Watch will probably increase by $300.….They can afford to pay. So what if Apple looses a couple of billion dollars? Who would care?
…
General and legal counsel and senior advisors (for all major companies, not just Apple) are used to handling these claims and probably advised to take their chances in Appeals court. Masimo already had a loss back in April.
From Masimo perspective, their legal counsel probably advised asking (aka extending an ‘olive branch’) for the maximum amount (by doing the math for a sales ban impact) to put pressure to settle … the gamble here would be that if Masimo loses, they may get very little compensation, and it opens the door for other device makers to leverage the case. (If indeed you can buy a $5 device with similar function, it may be deemed as a worthwhile risk to take for Apple)
On top that, the Masimo CEO is trouble by its own board and shareholders for tanking the stock from 16B to 6B for shifting away from the medical industry .. with another loss Masimo can tank even more.
Apple is just calling their bluff and saying we are going to disable the function to get around the ITC sales ban, and deal with it in court.
Last edited: