Apple has reportedly settled a three-year-old lawsuit with biometric sensor company Valencell over technology the company accused the Cupertino firm of stealing for use in its Apple Watch.
Valencell filed the patent infringement lawsuit against Apple back in January 2016 at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The lawsuit accused the Cupertino-based company of infringing on four of its patents, all related to heart rate sensing technology, as well as deceptive trade practices and breach of contract, following dealings Apple had with Valencell before the launch of the Apple Watch.
However, tech blog the5krunner reports that “Valencell’s case against Apple has now been settled and neither is able to further comment.”
Valencell claimed Apple approached the company for technical information about its PerfomTek technology under the pretense of licensing the technology, despite having no intention of actually doing so.
The biometric company also accused Apple of deciding it was more financially beneficial to risk infringing on Valencell’s patents than to license them, claiming that the practice was “consistent with the statement by Apple CEO Steve Jobs that Apple has ‘always been shameless about stealing great ideas.'”
Velencell had asked the court to level a preliminary and permanent injunction against future acts of infringement by Apple, and asked for damages as well as a an on going licensing royalty rate.
The company provides the heart rate monitoring and other biometric sensors used in many third-party devices. A similar lawsuit against Fitbit is currently being pursued.
