Apple beats AliveCor lawsuit over heart-rate apps

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California, ruled on Tuesday against AliveCor, which had developed an app for detecting irregular heartbeats

Apple persuaded a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a Silicon Valley startup accusing it of unlawfully monopolising the U.S. market for heart rate monitoring apps for its Apple Watch.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California, ruled on Tuesday against AliveCor, which had developed an app for detecting irregular heartbeats.

It accused Apple of infringing the federal Sherman antitrust law and a California unfair competition law.

The decision explaining White’s reasoning is temporarily being kept under seal because of confidentiality purposes.

AliveCor is deeply disappointed and strongly disagrees with the court’s decision to dismiss our anti-competition case and we plan to appeal, the firm said in a statement.

Apple said in a statement that the lawsuit challenged its ability to make improvements to the Apple Watch that consumers and developers depend on. Today’s outcome confirms that is not anticompetitive, it added.

In an amended complaint, AliveCor said Apple had led it to believe it would collaborate on heart-monitoring technology for the Apple Watch, only to then copy its ideas and start a “concentrated campaign to corner the market for heartrate analysis.”

The complaint also accused Apple of “updating” the heartrate algorithm for its watches, to stop third parties from identifying irregular heartbeats and offering competing apps.

AliveCor had developed KardiaBand, a wristband for the Apple Watch capable of recording an electrocardiogram.

The Mountain View, California-based firm also developed the Kardia app for analysing electrocardiogram readings on Apple Watches, and a SmartRhythm heartrate analysis app powered by AI.

Apple has denied wrongdoing, and said competitors have no right to dictate its design decisions.

AliveCor is still litigating separate patent violation claims against Apple.