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ARTICLE · 01 MARCH 2022

Federal Circuit Deems Algorithm Potentially Valid Trade Secret Notwithstanding Prior Publication

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On January 24, 2022, the Federal Circuit affirmed the grant of a preliminary injunction blocking the publication of a patent application on the basis that it contained the plaintiff, Masimo Corp.'s trade secrets.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Gazal Pour-Moezzi
Gazal Pour-Moezzi
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On January 24, 2022, the Federal Circuit affirmed the grant of a preliminary injunction blocking the publication of a patent application on the basis that it contained the plaintiff, Masimo Corp.'s trade secrets. Masimo Corp. v. True Wearables, Inc., No. 2021-2146, 2022 WL 205485 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 24, 2022). The Court of Appeals did so despite evidence that a widely circulated and cited paper on statistics had disclosed an equivalent algorithm, because the defendant failed to show that others in Masimo's particular field (or a related field) were aware of the paper.

In November 2018, Masimo Corp. and its spin-off company Cercacor Laboratories Inc. (collectively, "Masimo"), medical device companies specializing in patient monitoring technologies, sued competitor True Wearables, Inc. and its founder Dr. Marcelo Lamego for various claims including trade secret misappropriation and patent infringement.

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