‘I think we’re the first company to ever win.’ – Masimo Health’s Joe Kiani on suing Apple 

Masimo Health founder, chairman and CEO, Joe Kiani, has said that he had no choice but to sue Apple when asked during a fireside conversation at Collision in Toronto why he decided to bet the future of his company on the US$100 million lawsuit.

“I never thought I had a choice. As founder and CEO of a technology company, we got to where we got to through innovation; the technology we invented was revolutionary. We solved the problem that people thought was unsolvable. So we have learned to protect that intellectual property.”

He discusses the lawsuit further by adding: “They assured me they were not, nor never would, do pulse oximetry, but when they introduced it, I knew not only they had my trade secrets, I saw it in a patent they filed, but then when the product came out, I noticed our inventions were in it. 

“We didn’t know it was going to cost us US$100 million; Apple makes litigation very expensive. I don’t think it’s accidental. But I’m glad we won. I think we’re the first company to ever win.”

“We have another trial coming in November. And if we win that one, that’ll broaden our injunction both for photoplethysmography in general, including pulse rate, arrhythmia analysis, and because of the trade secret case, it could become a global injunction.”

When asked if the lawsuit was about profits and market share, or if something bigger is at stake, Joe responded by saying “I run a medical technology company. You know, part of it is capitalism. Part of it is trying to do the right thing …it’s not about profits for me.

“For me, it’s trying to do the right thing. I see so many problems in the world, so much big injustice is in our world that I can’t do anything about. But in my world there are things I can fix. I call it micro fixing. So when I see something wrong, I feel compelled to try to fix it.”

Joe was asked about Massimo’s latest venture delving into wearables, including the Freedom smartwatch which Joe previewed on stage but has yet to go on sale.

The CEO talked about how their smartwatches are a big deal for people dealing with chronic illness, and also athletes. “We’re the only company with a continuous monitor, not two measurements a day like they [Apple] do.

“We measure 70,000 times a day, which allows you to detect sleep patterns, apnea. Eventually, hopefully, we’ll get indications for opioid induced respiratory depression.

“We see [these measurements] as a big deal for people with chronic illnesses, super athletes, etc.” said Joe.

The CEO also talked about Massimo’s predictive analytics medical tech that has been used in hospitals since 2010. “We’ve created something we call Halo that takes all the information we gather from our parameters, the EMR, and we help predict where the patient’s going.

“We tell them what’s about to happen, the likelihood that it’s happening, so we think Halo is going to be a big deal for hospitals, and hopefully even for the home as we take these devices into the home.”

Joe also talked about Opioid Halo, an FDA-authorized wearable that alerts the wearer in the event of an opioid overdose: “We’re in the final stages of a limited market release, about to do a full market release for [Si, a device designed to provide early warning of possible] sepsis.

“We’re working on a cardiac Halo, and soon we’re going to have a clinical activity Halo where it can tell when someone’s about to touch a patient and they haven’t washed their hands”.

The conversation concluded with a look to the future of wearable technology, with Joe discussing that he wants to “turn everything from tethered to untethered”.  

“So I think first of all, from the blood pressure monitor, ECG, EEG, temperature, this should all be continuous. This should be all untethered, and we’re working on doing that. We also have a lofty goal of hopefully one day, measuring glucose non-invasively. We’ve been at it for 30 plus years. Hasn’t happened yet, but we haven’t given up yet.”

Joe’s comments were made as part of a wider discussion on health at Collision, which is returning to Toronto for its sixth year. Global founders, CEOs, investors and members of the media have come to the city to make deals and experience North America’s thriving tech ecosystem.

More than 1,600 startups are taking part in Collision 2024 – the highest number of startups ever at a Collision event. 45 percent of these are women-founded, and startups have travelled to Toronto from countries including Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, Uruguay, Japan, Italy, Ghana, Pakistan and beyond.

In total, more than 37,800 attendees have gathered at the event, as well as 570 speakers and 1,003 members of the media, to explore business opportunities with an international audience.

739 investors are attending Collision, including Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures; Wesley Chan, co-founder and managing partner of FPV Ventures; and Nigel Morris, co-founder and managing partner of QED Investors, as well as nine companies on the Forbes Midas List, and 12 investors from those firms.

Top speakers at Collision include:

• Geoffrey Hinton, Godfather of AI
• Maria Sharapova, entrepreneur and tennis legend
• Aidan Gomez, founder and CEO of Cohere (an AI for enterprise and large language model company, which raised US$450 million at a US$5 billion valuation in June 2024)
• Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi (a Canadian autonomous trucking company)
• Jeff Shiner, CEO of 1Password (a cloud-based password management tool)
• Dali Rajic, president and COO of Wiz (a cloud security platform)
• Alex Israel, co-founder and CEO of Metropolis (an AI and computer vision platform)
• Jonathan Ross, founder and CEO of Groq (an AI chip startup)
• Keily Blair, CEO of OnlyFans
• Autumn Peltier, Indigenous rights activist

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Useful links

• Collision website: https://collisionconf.com/ 
• Collision media kit: https://collisionconf.com/media/media-kit  
• Collision images: https://flickr.com/photos/collisionconf 
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