Philips Complaint Seeks ITC Probe, Import Ban Against Fitbit, Garmin Fitness Trackers

Fitness trackers from Fitbit, Garmin and others infringe four Philips patents on activity-monitoring technology, alleged a Tariff Act Section 337 complaint (login required) Tuesday at the International Trade Commission. Philips North America and its Dutch parent seek investigation plus limited-exclusion and cease-and-desist orders banning imports of the proposed respondents, which also include Ingram Micro, Maintek and Inventec. Philips “has dedicated significant resources” to R&D for “the advancement of health monitoring technology,” it noted. The patents date to December 2010 (7,845,228). The most recent (9,961,186) was granted in May 2018 and appears to cover the technology behind the Philips Lifeline medical alert system. None of the proposed respondents commented Thursday.