Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

>monopoly on blood oxygen measurement in a wearable electronic device

And I know this isn't your argument, but that's a VERY narrow market for the purposes of a US inquiry into monopolies. Like, the normal market definition fights are about whether you should be considering "premium smartphones" or "smartphones" as a whole. Or all of the grocery stores in a given region, and whether that should include convenience stores that also sell groceries.

I'd be hard pressed to imagine a court really contemplating an argument that a company has a monopoly in a very small slice of a market. It would be like saying that Rolex has a monopoly in luxury sport watches with headquarters in Geneva.



The definition of a monopoly is that it can engage in monopolistic practices. Poaching IP to destroy a small company is very much a monopolistic practice, and has a chilling effect on the rest of the market.

Of course in Apple's case this Masimo story is not the only monopolistic practice.

The correct analogy would be a watch market dominated by Casio and Swatch with no independent smaller brands.

Because every smaller brand that becomes somewhat successful is bought out by the Big Two. Or never gets that far because new IP somehow ends up being the sole property of the Big Two through various other means.

(Technically an oligopoly, but still maintained by monopolistic lock-ins and actions.)


> Poaching IP

I disagree with this framing where offering more money to employees is described with the same words used to describe stealing property

> smaller company

I mean, ok yea that’s technically true, but Masimo makes billions a year in revenue. They are not a smol bean company




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: