Avast ye scurvy dogs! Will Biden allow them knaves to ban our precious Apple Watches, arrr?
2023-11-30
Arr, mateys! Word be spreadin' that the ITC be makin' a decree! Apple be walkin' the plank, fer they can nae peddle their fancy Apple Watch in the land of the free. It be a tale o' patent pilferin' brought by a scurvy dog named Masimo. Shiver me timbers!
In the language of a 17th century pirate, it be a tale we've all heard before: unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., makin' decisions that make life harder for average Americans without any accountability. Arrr, it be a departure from the ideals of the Constitution, which clearly states that no branch of government be superior to the others. Yet, increasingly in modern times, the administrative state – the so-called "fourth branch" – makes critical decisions with impunity and without the consent of the governed.While most federal agencies be guilty of overreach, one that gets little attention be the International Trade Commission (ITC). This agency be responsible for protectin' the intellectual property rights of America’s private sector innovators and settlin' trade disputes between U.S. companies and foreign competitors. Among its authorities be the ability to ban certain products from the American market if they be found to violate intellectual property rights or patent law.
With the ITC’s extreme enforcement mechanism, it’s become a popular settin' for American companies to bring claims against other American companies in the hopes of coercin' large settlement agreements. Case in point: the ITC just ruled that Apple can no longer sell its wildly popular Apple Watch in the United States due to a claim of patent infringement from a company called Masimo. Masimo claimed that Apple infringed its patent over technology in the Apple Watch that monitors a user’s blood oxygen levels.
Masimo brought these same claims against Apple to federal court as well, which resulted in a mistrial, with the jury sidin' 6-1 in Apple’s favor. By sidin' with Masimo, the ITC displayed a serious error in judgment. Masimo’s claims centered on its pulse oximeter technology that’s typically used in hospitals, but the Apple Watch’s technology serves as a useful monitor for people when they aren’t in the hospital. If Apple Watches be banned, health complications that the watch would’ve caught will go unnoticed until it’s too late – puttin' people’s health at risk.
The Masimo case be not an exception to how the ITC operates and it’s alarmi' President Biden hasn’t done more to rein in agencies that put our economy at risk and take away a product that millions of Americans love. It’s clear that this agency has strayed far from its original mission, and is now an albatross around the neck of American free enterprise. America was founded on the principle that businesses should be free to innovate and compete in an open market, but big government policies have increasingly exerted control over the marketplace.
We need to push back against this administrative overreach and restore a truly free and fair market in our country. The first step to preventin' the ban of Apple Watches in the United States lies with the president. If Biden truly believes that the American economy should adhere to the principles of capitalism, then he should start by vetoing the ITC’s Masimo decision – which he has until Christmas to do. Vetoing this decision, and allowin' Americans to continue purchasin' the Apple Watches they clearly love and want, will send a powerful message to anti-free market government agencies. From there, Biden needs to take real steps to rein in this agency or he’ll have to take responsibility for the detrimental impacts to our economy and American consumers.