Apple secures another massive Apple Watch legal win as AliveCor appeal fails

Apple has an ongoing legal battle with heart monitoring company AliveCor. Now, the Cupertino tech giant has secured yet another victory in the dispute. The federal appeals court upheld a ruling made in 2024 that was in Apple's favor. 

Federal appeals court upholds its 2024 ruling on Apple vs AliveCor battle 

The ruling in question states that Apple's modifications to the Apple Watch were lawful product improvements and not anticompetitive behaviour. 

Apple vs AliveCor and the Apple Watch

According to AliveCor, the issue happened when Apple replaced its HRPO (Heart Rate during Physical Observation) algorithm with its heart rate neural network, or HRNN algorithm. That happened back in watchOS 5. 


On the other hand, Apple argued that AliveCor doesn't have the right to choose how Apple designs its OS and products. The request for Apple to support the older heart rate technology would, according to Apple, make the court an enforcer of how Apple designs its products. 

The court agreed with Apple in the end, and the Ninth Circuit has now confirmed Apple's victory. The court stated that Apple's refusal to share HRPO data was not an anticompetitive decision. 

The court also noted that some form of heart rate data access was essential for the market and the competition, but AliveCor's claim failed because Apple produced app developers with access to the same Tachogram API that Apple's Irregular Rhythm Notification feature takes advantage of. 

AliveCor's argument that Apple had a duty to share its proprietary data with competitors was also rejected by the court. The court underlined that antitrust laws generally don't impose obligations for companies to deal with their rivals. 

This decision would be Apple's second major win against AliveCor in the past year. Back in March of 2025, the Federal Circuit confirmed that three AliveCor patents related to heart rate monitoring were invalid. That decision stopped an ITC ruling that could have potentially led to an import ban of the Apple Watch. 

Apple gets another legal win, and I'm not surprised

To me, this ruling looks like common sense. Apple changed how the Apple Watch works and made it better over time, which is exactly what users expect. This apparently required the Cupertino tech giant to change its algorithms too.

If you think of it, it gets hard to call that anticompetitive when the company is improving its own product. And the thing is, Apple is still giving developers access to heart rate data through official APIs, just not the tech it previously used. AliveCor's argument, at this point, can somewhat look more like frustration over being left behind than proof of wrongdoing.

That said, I do get why smaller companies feel nervous in cases like this. When Apple controls both the hardware and the software, every big change can reshape the market overnight. And Apple has a lot of power over the Apple Watch, iPhones, and basically any product it makes. And these products are extremely popular, so basically, Apple can have serious power over the market. 

Still, forcing Apple to keep old tech just to protect a third party wouldn’t be good for users. In the end, I think this decision supports innovation, even if it’s a tough loss for AliveCor.