Biden Is Playing Favorites With Megadonors In A Patent Dispute

Joe Kiani, CEO of medical tech company Masimo, hosted a California fundraiser for Biden when the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination contest was still a crowded field.

by David Moore, Sludge

In upholding a federal agency’s ruling in a dispute between Apple and medical device company AliveCor, President Biden has also boosted the patent case of one of his 2020 campaign’s largest donors and fundraisers.

The megadonor is Joe Kiani, founder and CEO of medical technology company Masimo, which like AliveCor is battling Apple over patents underlying sensor features of the Apple Watch. Kiani and his company have donated millions of dollars to pro-Biden super PACs and the Biden Inaugural Committee, as well as hosting in-person and online fundraisers for Biden as a presidential candidate.

Joe Biden takes a selfie with voters during a town hall campaign stop.

This week, Silicon Valley startup AliveCor announced that the Biden administration informed it that it had decided not to veto a U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruling from December that Apple Watch devices’ electrocardiogram (ECG) function infringes on its patents. The ITC ruling concluded that imports of Apple Watches with the ECG feature should be banned, among other remediation, but it also stated that enforcement of an import ban import should be held off while AliveCor’s patents were being reviewed by a separate agency, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).