Apple, Inc. has moved to dismiss a complaint filed by AliveCor Inc. in the Northern District of California in a court filing last week. AliveCor’s amended complaint accuses Apple of violating federal antitrust and state unfair competition laws by challenging the validity of AliveCor’s ten patents by initiating an inter partes review at the Patent and Trademark Office.
The case concerns AliveCor’s Kardia Band, a wristband for the Apple Watch wearable device that allows for heart rate monitoring. The amended complaint alleges that Apple began to develop its own product and “decided that it would not accept competition on the merits,” allegedly forcing AliveCor off the Apple platform.
According to the motion, Apple only sought the inter partes review after AliveCor sued them for patent infringement, and 95% of the reviews have been verified as meritorious.
Next, the motion asserts that AliveCor’s claims turn on a misunderstanding of patent law: “Apple’s successful challenges to AliveCor patents still allow AliveCor to compete and make products previously covered by the invalid patents[;]” and thus, Apple is not preventing AliveCor from market competition.
Lastly, Apple argues that AliveCor suffered no anti-competition motivated financial damages from Apple’s initiation of inter partes reviews, the opinion finds.
AliveCor is represented by Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, while Apple is represented by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.
