A Democratic mega-donor whom Joe Biden called “one of my closest friends” could win with a ban on the latest version of Apple Watches, which has already been confirmed by the president.
The Biden-backed ban was temporarily stayed by a federal appeals court on Wednesday as Apple fights to overturn it and end a long-standing claim by medical technology company Masimo that the Silicon Valley giant has stolen its intellectual property.
Joe Kiani, the billionaire founder and CEO of Masimo, has donated millions to Democrats and is a particularly close supporter of Biden, with donations including $1 million to his Biden Foundation.
But its legal war with Apple led to the US International Trade Commission ruling that its Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models violated Masimo’s patent for blood oxygen level reading technology and that it should be prohibit its import.
The White House had until Christmas Day to repeal the ban by getting U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to block it, but she decided against it and it went into effect.
This is how Vice President Joe Biden greeted Joe Kiani in 2015. Kiani became one of Biden’s biggest donors in the 2020 election and was rewarded with a role on a powerful White House advisory group. MediaNews Group via Getty Images Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen, have been guests of Joe and Sarah Kiani at their sprawling $50 million ranch and vineyard, three hours north of Los Angeles. SplashNews.com In April, the embattled first son sought refuge with his wife and young son on the Kianis’ 8,000-acre ranch in California. SplashNews.com
It was then suspended Wednesday by a federal appeals court when Apple formally asked to appeal the ruling and sought and obtained an emergency order suspending the ban.
The amount of money at stake for Apple or Masimo is unknown.
But Kiani has cultivated exceptionally close ties with Biden, who in 2019 spoke at an event where Kiani was in the audience and called him “one of my closest friends,” the Associated Press reported.
Kiani, 59, is an Iranian-American businessman who is among Biden’s biggest donors.
Kiani and her homemaker, Sarah, are major donors to Democrats and their causes. Joe and Sarah Kiani were among the guests at Biden’s state dinner at the White House in December 2022 for Frenchman Emmanuel Macron. C-SPAN
In addition to a $1 million donation to the Biden Foundation, Kiani donated $750,000 to the pro-Biden PAC Unite the Country in 2020, part of the nearly $3 million he contributed to the president’s campaign, super PAC and inaugural committee. He is also a major donor to the Democratic Party.
A Masimo spokesperson said the CEO and his “team” had never lobbied Biden or Tai over the Apple Watch dispute and accused Apple CEO Tim Cook of having his own lobbying effort.
“This dispute has never been about money for Masimo,” the spokesperson said. “The company’s motivation has always been and continues to be to hold Apple accountable for infringing Masimo’s patents and restore market integrity.”
The White House declined to comment. Tai’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The Post has contacted Apple for comment.
The Biden administration allowed the latest version of the Apple Watch to be federally banned after Joe Kiani’s tech company filed copyright infringement lawsuits against the tech giant. REUTERS The Apple Watch dispute puts Kiani at odds with Apple CEO Tim Cook (left), who was at the White House in June with President Biden to discuss technology and investment with India’s prime minister. Narendra Modi (center).
Kiani and his wife, Sarah, were invited to a state dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron in December 2022, and then to a reception at the White House for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, in March 2023.
“Thank you @POTUS and @FLOTUS for celebrating #Nowruz at the White House,” Kiani posted on X. “You truly have been the president of all Americans.”
A month later, in April, Kiani and his wife welcomed their first child, Hunter Biden, and his wife, Melissa Cohen, to their sprawling 8,000-acre (12.5-square-mile) Kiani Reservation, three hours north of Los Angeles. .
The $50 million Santa Ynez property includes a main house and a guest house, both equipped with a pool, tennis courts and a vineyard.
Catherine Kiani was given a job working for Jill Biden after graduating from the posh liberal arts school Claremont McKenna College. In 2002, her father posted this photo on her Instagram of her voting for the first time. joe.kiani / Instagram Kiani’s daughter gushed about her White House experience in her tony college alumni magazine. CMC Magazine
Kiani has cultivated ties with the Biden family in other ways. She offered an $85,000-a-year job to Biden’s troubled niece, Caroline Biden, in July 2018, according to emails and text messages found on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
The job would have allowed him to move to Los Angeles, where he wanted to be near his cousin Hunter, to serve two years of probation for a stolen credit card, but he scoffed that the offer was indeed “below minimum wage.”
The Bidens, in turn, have helped the Kianis.
Kiani was named to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in 2021. The panel is the only body “charged with making science, technology and innovation policy recommendations to the president and the White House,” giving Kiani a platform powerful.
Kiani posed in front of this portrait of Biden as a senator and uses his social media to regularly praise the president for his policies. joe.kiani/Instagram
And Kiani’s daughter, Catherine, got her first job out of college in Jill Biden’s office in the East Wing of the White House.
Catherine, now a student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Carey School of Law, gushed about meeting alumni of her posh liberal arts school, Claremont McKenna College, in Claremont, California, at the House state dinner White for Macron, where his parents were guests.
And the first lady spoke on a panel Kiani hosted at the high-profile tech conference and film festival, SXSW, in Austin, Texas, in 2021, to boost the “civic engagement platform” she started in 2020.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn