Apple shuts down AliveCor antitrust claims after earlier Apple Watch patent win

AliveCor’s latest attempt to revive its Apple Watch antitrust case fell short this week, with a federal appeals court handing Apple another win.

Today’s development follows the company’s earlier win in the International Trade Commission patent case last spring.

In a decision filed January 8, 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of Apple, rejecting AliveCor’s claim that Apple illegally monopolized the market for heart rhythm analysis apps on Apple Watch.

In March 2025, Apple defeated AliveCor in an ITC dispute after AliveCor’s heart monitoring patents were invalidated through the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. That finding was upheld on appeal. The decision also eliminated the risk of an Apple Watch import ban and ended AliveCor’s patent based challenge against Apple.

Today’s ruling addresses AliveCor’s parallel antitrust lawsuit, which focused on Apple’s changes to watchOS and access to heart rate data. AliveCor argued that Apple intentionally cut off third party access to an older heart rate algorithm, undermining AliveCor’s SmartRhythm feature, while Apple introduced its own Irregular Rhythm Notification for Apple Watch.

The panel affirmed, on different grounds, the district court’s summary judgment in favor of Apple Inc. in medical-technology company AliveCor’s antitrust action alleging monopolization in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

AliveCor created a software feature called SmartRhythm to detect episodes of atrial fibrillation using the Apple Watch. SmartRhythm relied on heart rate data that Apple calculated with an algorithm while the Watch was in the “Workout Mode” setting. The year after AliveCor created SmartRhythm, Apple adopted a Watch operating system update that used a different algorithm to calculate heart rate data. Apple shared the new algorithm’s data with third-party app developers and stopped sharing the old algorithm’s data, meaning that SmartRhythm could no longer confidently detect atrial fibrillation. Apple also added its own software feature to detect irregular heart rhythms. This feature, called Irregular Rhythm Notification, used a third algorithm to calculate heart rate data. Apple also shared that data with app developers.

The Ninth Circuit rejected that theory, holding that Apple’s conduct amounted to a lawful refusal to deal rather than anticompetitive behavior. The court emphasized that companies generally have no antitrust duty to continue sharing proprietary technology with competitors and found that AliveCor failed to meet any recognized exception to that rule.

The judges also concluded that the data AliveCor sought was not an essential facility, noting that Apple’s own heart rhythm feature relies on different data that remains available to third party developers through existing APIs.

You can read the full ruling here.

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