(Reuters) – The only active patent remaining in Philips North America LLC’s infringement lawsuit against Google LLC’s Fitbit LLC is invalid, a Boston federal judge ruled on Thursday, ending the litigation between the two companies for now.
Philips had accused several Fitbit wearables of infringing its “interactive exercise monitoring” patent. But the invention cannot be patented because it covers an abstract idea, said U.S. Chief District Judge Dennis Saylor. said.
Philips said Friday it was aware of the decision and declined to comment.
Join now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Lawyers for San Francisco-based Fitbit and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The North American branch of Netherlands-based Koninklijke Philips NV alleged in 2019 that Fitbit’s fitness trackers infringed on four patents related to its wearable health monitoring devices. Philips withdrew its claims regarding one of the patents, the court declared another invalid and a court at the United States Patent Office overturned the third, in a decision that Philips is appealing.
Saylor on Thursday granted Fitbit’s request to rule that the only remaining exercise-tracking patent in the case was invalid. Saylor said the patent covers “nothing more than the collection, analysis and presentation of information, which have been shown – individually and collectively – to be abstract concepts.”
The judge also rejected Fitbit’s argument that the patent’s alleged innovation of “offloading” data analytics functions from a user’s phone to an external server was an inventive and patentable concept.
Fitbit, along with Garmin Ltd, defeated a related Philips patent case at the US International Trade Commission last year.
The Boston case is Philips North America LLC v. Fitbit Inc, US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, No. 1:19-cv-11586.
For Philips: Eley Thompson and Lucas Silva of Foley & Lardner
For Fitbit: David Shaw by Desmarais
Read more:
Fitbit loses bid to evade Philips fitness tracker patent claims, for now
US to probe Fitbit, Garmin and other wearables after Philips complains
Join now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.