Why did MW, an Amsterdam lawyer specialising in healthcare, technology and competition law, want two Libreband products? Why did TM, a Utrecht University innovation researcher, buy one? Why was MC, a former Eli Lilly scientist, commenting on our investigation into Abbott and Google? And why had two Abbott employees already registered on Love My Libre using their work email addresses?
These are not the backgrounds we normally encounter among people taking an interest in our CGM accessories. More strikingly, when we started looking at the recent activity, connections to Abbott kept appearing: directly in some cases and through documented professional networks in others.
All of this is happening while Abbott is trying to invalidate our registered trade marks at the UK Intellectual Property Office. The extraordinary story of how a small independent business established more than 8 years ago came to be defending its brand against one of the world's largest medtech companies is a story for another time. For now, what matters is what has been happening around that case.
We cannot prove that these events were coordinated or that Abbott instructed any of the people involved. But considered together, and particularly against the timing of the IPO proceedings, we no longer think coincidence is the most convincing explanation.
So what exactly has been happening?
First came direct interest from Abbott
In May 2026, two people registered on the Love My Libre website using Abbott corporate email addresses. One was a manager involved in NHS contracts, based in Germany; the other works as a Statistician at Abbott’s offices in Oxfordshire (UK).
Registering on a public website is not improper and does not reveal someone's motive. But it establishes one important fact: people inside Abbott are actively taking an interest in Love My Libre while at the same time pursuing proceedings against us.
And the interest is not something inferred from a chain of distant connections. It is visible in our own website records.
Apple had already tried to obtain a Libreband
There had also been a separate warning that Libreband was attracting attention from people well outside our ordinary customer base.
A US Apple engineer whose specialist work includes wearable-band technology earlier this month attempted to obtain a Libreband, ordering it to be delivered directly to a known Apple workplace. We declined the order.
The interest has not ended. While writing this article on 25 August, our website records showed another visit to the Libreband 3 product page from an IP address directly attributable to Apple Inc. The visit was not routed through a VPN. While we cannot identify the individual behind it, this was direct activity from Apple’s network.
There is no evidence connecting that Apple activity to Abbott or to the IPO proceedings, but its significance is different: why would someone who’s so highly qualified with numerous stretchable band related patents to their name need to buy one of our products? What would they gain that’s not evident from the details in the product description? What is it about Libreband that could be relevant to them?
It wasn’t just that the interest had come from Apple, it was the job title and experience of this purchaser thatmade us pay attention. Then, other professionally unusual customers began appearing.
Small companies notice
Love My Libre is a small niche business. We know our customers, our products and what ordinary purchasing behaviour looks like. These customers do not fit our typical customer profile, which is precisely why they stand out. Only a relatively small proportion of the armbands we sell go to international customers, making an unusual cluster like this even more noticeable.
Perhaps what is less obvious from outside is just how closely involved I am in every part of the business. I have been doing this for more than eight years and I am involved in preparing every order. There are not layers of staff between an online purchase and the person running the company. When something unusual happens, I see it. When several unusual things begin happening together, I notice the pattern.
So when professionally unusual customers began appearing, whether it was their location, email or something else that caught our attention, we looked further at who they were. And the picture became more interesting rather than less.
Then a healthcare lawyer bought 2 Librebands
On 20 August 2026, another order we received stood out immediately.
MW has a distinctive surname. A partner at international law firm in Amsterdam, he ordered two Libreband CGM Armbands within minutes of one another. Oddly in 2 different sizes.
MW’s professional background makes those purchases particularly unusual. His work covers Dutch and European competition, technology and healthcare law, with a focus on regulated sectors including healthcare and pharmaceuticals. The competition practice he leads has also had Medtronic, one of the world's largest medical-device companies, among its publicly identified clients.
There’s no evidence that MW represents Abbott, but the purchase raises an obvious question: why would a specialist healthcare and technology lawyer want two different sizes of the product at the centre of Abbott's trade mark proceedings, ordered only minutes apart and paying shipping costs twice?
If the products were not intended for his own personal use, buying two examples would be a straightforward way of obtaining physical samples to inspect and compare. A product in your hands reveals things a webpage cannot: its construction, branding, packaging, accompanying information, sizing and exactly how the Libreband name is presented alongside FreeStyle Libre.
None of that information is secret. Purchasing a product for examination can be entirely legitimate. But it is also exactly the sort of information somebody conducting commercial or legal intelligence about a product might want.
A former Eli Lilly scientist appears on our Abbott investigation
If you’re a Love My Libre subscriber, you’ll know that we publish news articles and a newsletter, called Libre Life. The articles are independent of any medtech involvement and are intended to reflect news of interest to the diabetes community and more broadly with other CGM users. We don't have sponsors or paid advertising, so our editorial coverage is independent of the companies we report on.
Recently, we examined Abbott's collaboration with Google and the wider questions surrounding glucose data, AI and the commercial value of metabolic information in our article Abbott & Google want your glucose data for massive health study.
Within hours of publication, a comment on the blog stood out. MC, a former Eli Lilly scientist, appeared to defend the notion of medtech owning individuals’ health data, an opposing view to the angle of the article.
“Leading the way for health. Thank you.”
MC had previously published diabetes-related research at Eli Lilly alongside peers also involved in related work and particularly of note was an identifiable research link to published scientific work with a named scientist at Abbott Laboratories.
Whilst that doesn’t mean MC was acting for Abbott when he commented on Libre Life’s blog, again the timing by a former pharmaceutical scientist makes us curious about the connection.
And then there was TM
TM initially seemed unlikely to have a professional interest in a CGM armband.
An Assistant Professor in Innovation Studies at Utrecht University, with research focused mainly on innovation and sustainable transport, there is no obvious diabetes or CGM connection. Yet TM also sought to place an order for a CGM armband from Love My Libre.
When we examined his professional environment, another Abbott connection appeared. TM works within Utrecht University's Innovation Studies community, where research involves healthcare technologies and the regulation of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. There was a link with colleagues affiliated to Abbott in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands.
Again, another purchaser who initially appeared entirely unrelated to Abbott turns out to sit remarkably close to a documented Abbott relationship.
There has also been unusual website traffic
The unusual activity has not been limited to named purchasers and registrations.
We have also seen website visits from countries that rarely generate meaningful traffic to Love My Libre, including markets where CGM use is relatively limited and where we would not ordinarily expect much demand for a niche FreeStyle Libre accessory.
That evidence is not as strong as seeing a named purchase or an Abbott corporate registration. VPNs, corporate networks and automated traffic can all distort location data, so we do not treat geography as proof of anything.
But in context, the change is worth preserving. The website traffic has become less typical at the same time as the customer activity has become more professionally unusual.
Stop looking at each event separately
Each event has a possible innocent explanation and none, on its own, proves coordination.
But they did not occur in isolation. Together they form a cluster of professionally unusual activity around Love My Libre in which direct Abbott involvement or documented routes back to Abbott repeatedly appear. Separate from this, an Apple engineer specialising in wearable-band technology had already attempted to obtain Libreband, showing that the product was also attracting specialist corporate interest beyond Abbott.
The connections are not all equally direct, and we are careful about that distinction.
What is striking is the recurrence. Abbott keeps appearing somewhere in the picture.
The timing makes it harder to ignore
Abbott's challenge to our trade marks has been running since December 2024. In August 2026, a Preliminary View was confirmed in favour of Love My Libre. It’s not the ultimate decision, but within days came some of the unusual purchasing activity. As legal proceedings are ongoing, I’m going to leave the story of the trade marks for another time, for now the relevant point is the timing.
When people with professionally unusual backgrounds look to obtain physical examples of a product shortly after an important development in proceedings concerning that product's trade mark, it is reasonable to ask whether those events really are independent.
Why would somebody want the physical product?
If someone wanted to investigate Libreband in connection with a commercial or legal dispute, the website would only take them so far. So acquiring one makes sense for closer inspection.
There is nothing inherently improper about purchasing another company's product for analysis. Companies, lawyers and product developers do it frequently. It is a normal part of competitive and corporate intelligence.
The obvious question then is, if Librebands are not being bought for the purchasers themselves, who wants them examined and why?
Coincidence or coordination?
We are not alleging that Abbott instructed MW, TM or MC to do anything, because we do not have evidence proving that. Nor are we alleging unlawful conduct by any person discussed in this article.
And we don’t know if there were earlier or other instances of similar professionals taking an interest. For now, what we do have goes beyond speculative internet connections. We have direct evidence of Abbott employees registering with Love My Libre, direct evidence of unusual product purchases and direct evidence of engagement with our Abbott reporting. The professional backgrounds and networks surrounding those individuals provide additional context.
Taken together, the pattern appears more consistent with professionally motivated intelligence-gathering than with a series of unrelated consumer purchases.
What remains unanswered is whether the people involved were acting entirely independently, for other organisations or ultimately for Abbott.
We have retained the relevant orders, registrations, and associated records. We’re not showing all the evidence, but we will continue to keep an eye out for unusual professional activity while Abbott's proceedings remain active.
Of course, there may be straightforward explanations for these individual events but until we have an explanation and whilst there’s an ongoing case against us, the question remains exactly the one we started out with.
Coincidence or coordination? Are these buyers investigating Libreband for Abbott?
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