The Apple Watch is certainly the favorite among teens, a recent study shows, but it seems to be on the wrong side of the law, as the fruit company finds its smartwatch at the heart of a second lawsuit. The first lawsuit concerned a cracked screen (and the case ended in the customer's favor). This new lawsuit, however, concerns a Detroit, Michigan woman who claims that Apple (and Nike, interestingly enough) are violating her patent for a "computer wrist wearable."
Daisy Washington-Gross has filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Michigan against Apple because, as she states in her complaint, "Apple, Inc. has infringed on the Patent Pending for the "Detachable Beeper Disc Digital Gym Shoe Computer Wrist Watch"." The complaint further alleges that, since Gross was the first to put in for the computer wrist watch patent, Apple is infringing on her patent.
There is an obvious problem with Gross's (that's her real last name, by the way, if you discount the hyphenation) claim about a pending patent. The problem with pending patents is that they can't be deemed official until they are published. No matter how innovative the idea, any pending patent can be tossed out or thrown out altogether and never see the light of day due to the nature of the patent itself and just how detailed or not it is. So, with that said, Gross's patent may never actually see the light of day because it has yet to be filed (and further evidence suggests that this patent has been filed some years ago).
Next, if Gross intends to sue Apple, she might as well sue other companies such as Google, LG, Motorola, Asus, and Samsung, among others, since all these companies (Samsung leading the helm) put out modern smartwatches before Apple ever entered the smartwatch ring back last year. Samsung put out the first of modern smartwatches back in 2013 with the Galaxy Gear, back when "iWatch" whispers made their way in the mainstream tech press. Why is Gross going after Apple and not a company like Samsung likely has something to do with national lawsuits more than anything else.
Secondly, Gross has a very generic claim with regard to a computer wrist wearable. The patent itself Gross has filed seems so basic that it would be ludicrous if she did see it published and won this new lawsuit against Apple. Apple has been under the gun for patent violations before, though: most recently, the company has been accused of implementing a heart rate sensor in the Apple Watch that matches to a "T" the same idea from a Raleigh, NC company who has a filed patent on its own heart rate patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
