Manny Caixeiro recently spoke with Politico for the article, “MAHA is intensifying the Big Tech patent wars.” Below is an excerpt.
Surging demand for fitness devices, alongside vocal support from health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, is creating an arms race between the companies that produce watches, rings and bracelets tracking health metrics.
Last year, Kennedy told House members he wants every American sporting a wearable by the end of the decade, promising “one of the biggest advertising campaigns” in his department’s history to reach that goal. While details remain scant, competition among industry’s biggest players is heating up, with companies taking one another to patent court to protect their edge in a punishing consumer market that demands a steady stream of new features.
At stake are billions of dollars as companies fight for their products to become the public's go-to devices for tracking everything from sleep quality to fertility. The surging demand for wearables has led to more companies using patent disputes to block competitors from importing or selling their devices in the United States.
More than 1.3 million fitness tracker devices were purchased in the first seven months of 2025, a 35 percent increase from the prior-year period, according to Circana.
“Through these patent litigations, we are seeing a redefinition of where the wearable products that we buy in the future are coming from and how much we’re going to pay from them,” Manny Caixeiro, a patent lawyer at Venable.
Click here for the article.