Apple watch

Apple sued over its Apple Watch heart monitor

Company claims Apple infringed on its own patent

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Apple's technology for its heart monitor may actually belong to another. Omni MedSci, a tech company, filed a lawsuit against Apple in the Eastern district of Texas court, claiming the technology firm infringed on Omni MedSci's patent, according to Axios.

Apple's heart monitor is built into its Apple Watch, which launched in 2014 and is now on its third edition. The heart monitor on the watch has gotten a lot of attention — and Apple recently launched a study to measure irregular heart rhythms. An Apple Watch device called the KardiaBand also earned approval to detect atrial fibrillation (AFib).

The Apple Watch app, Cardiogram, also got nods from the University of California, San Francisco through a study that says the program accurately detected sleep apnea 90 percent of the time, and hypertension 82 percent of the time.

Omni MedSci says it met with Apple between 2014 and 2016 to talk about its technology, but Apple broke off talks just before launching its own heart monitor.

This is hardly Apple's first jaunt into court. The company has recently been sued by iPhone owners after Apple admitted to purposefully slowing down its old smartphones in an attempt to keep its batteries from degrading. Although Apple is now allowing iPhone owners to trade in its old batteries for newer ones at just $29 a pop, that offer hasn't appeased some iPhone owners who have accused Apple of secretly impacting their smartphones.

Apple has not responded to the Omni MedSci lawsuit.


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