President Biden upholds ITC ruling on Apple Watch’s EKG patent battle

Yahoo Finance tech editor Dan Howley explains what President Biden's decision on the International Trademark Commission's ruling on the Apple Watch will mean for the company.

Video Transcript

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SEANA SMITH: President Biden has said that he will not veto a December patent ruling by the International Trade Commission that could lead to an import ban on Apple Watches here in the US. Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley has been tracking that story for us. And Dan, what can you tell us just in terms of why we didn't see the veto and the implications of this, what this could mean for Apple here going forward?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, a veto is basically-- it just doesn't happen usually. It's only happened once. And it was for Apple, at least recently, with regards to the iPad. But this has to do with the EKG sensor. And essentially what the ITC is saying is that Apple infringes on the patent for this company, AliveCor. But there's also the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that says that those patents aren't even valid.

So there's this ongoing issue. Apple says it's going to appeal-- to take this to an appeal. AliveCor is still hoping to ensure that those patents stay intact. But I mean, this is-- we're not going to see Apple Watches stopped being imported into the US. It will likely just be, if anything happens, that Apple has to pay some kind of royalty, potentially, to AliveCor.

DAVE BRIGGS: Some type of licensing deal. So from EKG to the diabetes game, how is Apple getting in on that?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, this is according to "Bloomberg," Mark Gurman, who probably lives inside the walls of Tim Cook's house. And essentially, this is a no-prick glucose monitor. And so you would be able to monitor for diabetes or prediabetes, things along those lines, from your watch. But according to the report, this is still a large device.

It started at roughly table-sized, then it's something down to your bicep. And they still have to miniaturize it. But they've shown proof of concept at this point. So don't expect it to be coming this year or next year. It could still be something that's coming down the line.

And look, this is something that companies have been trying forever. Google have wanted to put in contacts that would measure blood glucose levels. But they abandoned the effort because it was just too much, right? So this is something that Apple's been working on.

And it goes toward their kind of vision of being more of a health-centric company in addition to your everyday tech. You have female health monitoring. You have the ability to monitor your heart rate, the ability to check atrial fib, sleep tracking. You can send all that information to your doctor if you want.

So this is just part of their move to go more into health. It would be massive if they got this off the ground, really, and into stores.

SEANA SMITH: It certainly it would be a massive, massive milestone. All right, Dan Howley, thanks so much.