Apple Faces Billionaire Khosla in Goliath v. Goliath Tech Suits

The iPhone maker, VC veteran are fighting for heart-health tracking market. From a report: There's an unwritten rule for technology startups: Never challenge Apple in court if you want to survive. The world's most valuable company has a track record of success in a long string of David versus Goliath battles over cutting-edge, life-changing technologies. But billionaire Vinod Khosla is no lightweight. He's one of Silicon Valley's most celebrated venture capitalists, and he's used to playing long odds on the startups he backs. Khosla Ventures LLC put itself on a collision course with Apple when it moved into the personal health and fitness space a decade ago and invested in AliveCor, a maker of cardiac monitoring devices and software. What might have been a big partnership opportunity for AliveCor in the years following the release of the Apple Watch in 2015, to offer watch bands that monitor heart health, has turned into a messy court fight.

Now, instead of riding Apple's coattails as a prominent player in the wearable medical device market, forecast to grow to $132.5 billion by 2031, AliveCor's Food and Drug Administration-approved technology is inaccessible to the tens of millions of people who buy Apple Watches every year. The startup is in its third year of trying to prove to judges that the iPhone maker brazenly copied its heart-monitoring technology and sabotaged AliveCor's ability to offer its own product on the Apple Watch. Apple has parried with claims that its smaller rival's patent-infringement and antitrust claims are meritless -- and with counterattacks alleging that AliveCor is the imitator.

So it doesn't matter

[wakeboarder]

If apple wipes out a small company, unless they are backed by a billionaire?

Re:

[thomn8r]

If apple wipes out a small company, unless they are backed by a billionaire?

That's the US legal $ystem in a nutshell

Re: So it doesn't matter

[saloomy]

No. See: VirnetX

Ready for battle, but ...

[fahrbot-bot]

Apple Faces Billionaire Khosla in Goliath v. Goliath Tech Suits

No slings in sight. Just as well, you could put an "i" out with those. :-)

Re: Ready for battle, but ...

[saloomy]

Apple isnt a billionaire. Apple is a trillionaire. This isnt Goliath v Goliath.

Re:

[organgtool]

Apple is a trillionaire

As of last month, Apple had $332.16 billion in assets and a total equity of $62.16 billion. Other than depreciation, the value of those assets is practically guaranteed. On the other hand, a company's market cap is not really much different from a person's investment portfolio: its current value is based almost entirely on unrealized gains and those gains could vanish with little to no warning. If you disagree, have a conversation with someone who was looking to retire shortly aft

Re:

[saloomy]

Given that the market values them in the trillions today, thats what they could theoretically raise against.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy

[vilain]

I've long waited for Khosla to either die or be rendered penniless by his own foolishness. I hate what he did with his little strip of Martin's Beach just because he can. The State of California is suing him. And now Apple is going after a project he's funding. Ultimately, I want to see his ashes scattered at Martin's Beach after his estate returns it to the State. Pity he doesn't seem to have any kids to squabble over his business and estate SUCCESSION-style.

Re:

[Joce640k]

I feel the whole patent system needs an overhaul. Patent trolls should not be allowed to extort companies that are actually using the technology. AliveCor has done next to nothing with those patents, specially in contrast to Apple.

Yeah, but who's to say if Apple copied his ideas or not?

Re:

[registrations_suck]

Doesn't matter. Nothing wrong with copying an idea....and ideas can't be patented anyway.

Re:

[Canberra1]

Ha Ha. But seriously Chinese doctors, when they take your pulse, the good ones say 12 or so measurements are taken. ECG software also measures exceptions and delays over time. They are using AI all the time to train medical tests and pathology where specialists are needed. You should not be able to patent what a cardiac surgeon can already tell you. The one thing these patent attorneys do NOT do, is ask any doctor or medical teaching hospital what they teach. The real key - is false positives and false neg

Re:

[thomn8r]

Ha Ha. But seriously Chinese doctors, when they take your pulse, the good ones say 12 or so measurements are taken. ECG software also measures exceptions and delays over time. They are using AI all the time to train medical tests and pathology where specialists are needed. You should not be able to patent what a cardiac surgeon can already tell you. The one thing these patent attorneys do NOT do, is ask any doctor or medical teaching hospital what they teach. The real key - is false positives and false negatives, and fixing assumptions when sensors improve. I think many pacemakers will have all the features. I know horse trainers strap up yearlings and test, before deciding which ones to flog off to punters, and have features not on 'human' ones.

ChatGPT, is that you?

Analogy Doesn't Quite Work

[organgtool]

Many of the lawsuits Apple is involved with are similar to the story of David and Goliath since Apple is one of the biggest companies in the world, and therefore makes everyone else look so much smaller. The main difference, though, is that the majority seem to root for Apple instead of "David". It says a lot about the success of a company's marketing department when the masses want to see a juggernaut crush an underdog.