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Apple wins another Patent relating to the Apple Watch ECG Feature that may assist them in their patent infringement case against AliveCor

1 x cover Apple Watch ECG

Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent relating to user's being able to obtain an ECG reading on an Apple Watch by simply touching the digital crown as noted in our cover graphic above.

Apple's granted patent relates to an electronic wearable device, such as a watch or wrist-worn device. The wearable device can have electrodes capable of taking physiological measurements of a user when the device is worn on or otherwise coupled to a body of user. The placement or operation of the electrodes on the wearable device can, for example, allow for increased functionality in a relatively compact wearable device which may have limited real estate for functional components.

According to some embodiments, one or more electrodes on the wearable device can be dual-purposed or multi-purposed for obtaining multiple types of physiological measurements. For example, to obtain a first type of measurement, an electrode on the wrist-facing surface can be operated in concert with another electrode on an outward-facing surface that faces away from the user's wrist. The electrode on the wrist-facing surface can provide a contact to the arm wearing the device, while other electrode on the outward-facing surface can provide a contact to the other free arm of the user by permitting the user to contact the outward-facing electrode with their other free arm. The electrodes coupled to the two arms can then cooperate to obtain an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) measurement based on an electrical potential difference between the two electrodes.

Apple's patent FIG. 5 below is an illustration of a watch worn by a user during a physiological measurement (ECG); FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a watch taking the physiological measurement.

2 Apple Watch with ECG built in using digitial crown +
Apple's patent FIGS. 8 and 9 above show an example of watch enclosure #102 in which physiological sensing electrodes such as wrist-facing electrodes #130 are formed using a conductive coating such as a physical vapor deposition (PVD) coating. FIG. 8 is a perspective view of an example of a watch enclosure  containing coated wrist-facing electrodes while FIG. 9 is a cross section view of an example of an enclosure  containing coated wrist-facing electrodes.

The coated electrodes can be formed by coating a conductive material onto a non-conductive substrate. For example, a glass, sapphire, or ceramic substrate can be provided as the back cover or a component of the back cover. Alternatively, other implementations are contemplated where the conductive coating material is formed on a surface of a dielectric layer that is formed on a conductive substrate, where the dielectric layer provides insulation to separate the electrodes or electrode channels from each other and from the conductive substrate.

According to some embodiments, the sensing electrodes can additionally include one or more outward-facing electrodes  disposed on an outward-facing surface of the watch or wearable device as noted in FIG. 8 above.

In December 2020, 'AliveCor' sued Apple for patent infringement regarding ECG device technology. In December 2022, Apple filed a 4-Count countersued against AliveCor. Whether this latest granted patent will provide Apple with yet more ammunition against AliveCor in their patent infringement battle is unknown at this time.

For more details, review Apple's granted patent 11857340.

10.52FX - Granted Patent Bar

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