Tag: apple watch ban

Apple Urges US Appeals Court to Overturn ITC’s Apple Watch Import Ban Amidst Masimo Dispute

Apple urged a U.S. appeals court on Friday to overturn a U.S. trade tribunal’s decision to ban imports of some Apple Watches in a patent dispute with medical-monitoring technology company Masimo.

Apple told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the U.S. International Trade Commission’s decision was based on a “series of substantively defective patent rulings,” and that Masimo failed to show it had invested in making competing U.S. products that would justify the order.

Representatives for Apple and Masimo did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the filing.

Irvine, California-based Masimo has accused Apple of hiring away its employees and stealing its pulse oximetry technology after discussing a potential collaboration. Apple first introduced pulse oximetry to its Series 6 Apple Watches in 2020.

Masimo convinced the ITC on Dec. 26 to block imports of Apple’s latest-edition Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches after finding that their technology for reading blood-oxygen levels infringed Masimo’s patents.

Apple temporarily resumed sales of the watches the next day after persuading the Federal Circuit to pause the ban. The appeals court reinstated the ban in January, leading Apple to remove pulse oximetry capabilities from watches sold during the appeal, which Apple has said could last at least a year.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection separately determined in January that redesigned versions of the watches did not violate Masimo’s rights and would not be not subject to the ban. Masimo said in a court filing that the watches “definitively do not contain pulse oximetry functionality.”

Apple told the Federal Circuit on Friday that the ban could not stand because a Masimo wearable covered by the patents was “purely hypothetical” when it filed its ITC complaint in 2021.

The tech giant also argued that Masimo’s patents were invalid and that its watches did not infringe them.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

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Apple Watch Series 9, Watch Ultra 2 Lose Blood Oxygen Feature to Dodge US Ban

Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 will no longer offer the company’s blood oxygen feature on both models in the US, according to the company. In order to dodge a looming US ban on its latest smartwatches, Apple has disabled the pulse oximetry feature on its smartwatches, which infringe on patents held by medical technology firm Masimo. As a result, customers who purchase these two models in the US will not be able to measure their blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels.

Masimo CEO Joe Kiani told Bloomberg that Apple had not reached out to the medical technology firm to discuss a settlement amid the ongoing legal dispute between both firms. Apple has appealed a ruling of the International Trade Commission (ITC) in October that said the company infringed on Masimo’s patents related to pulse oximetry, a feature that was first introduced with the Apple Watch Series 6.

Earlier this week, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Apple could not sell both models with the blood oxygen feature, while refusing to pause the import ban during the appeal period. As anticipated, Apple has disabled the blood oxygen sensor on its Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 that are sold in the US, to dodge the ban.

This means that both smartwatches in the US will still ship with a blood oxygen sensor, but its functionality will be disabled. The feature will also be disabled via the Watch app. Meanwhile, Apple has also updated its product pages for the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 in the US with a banner that informs customers the blood oxygen feature isn’t available on those models, while it has also disappeared from the company’s feature comparison charts for different models.

It is important to note that the restrictions on the blood oxygen feature only applies to customers in the US, which means that the feature will work on the same models sold in other countries, including India. If Apple and Masimo resolve the patent dispute in the future, the iPhone make should be able to activate the functionality once more, as the company has merely deactivated the hardware on these models.

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Apple Watch Series 9, Watch Ultra 2 Models May Lose Support for SpO2 Monitoring to Dodge US Ban: Report

Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 models could drop support for a health monitoring feature in order to dodge an import ban in the US, according to a report. After the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled last year that Apple could not import and sell its latest smartwatches in the US for infringing on two patents, the company is reportedly planning to disable support for the features on the Apple Watch Series 9 and the high-end Apple Watch Ultra 2.

9to5Mac spotted a legal filing that states Apple’s lawyers have proposed a solution to disable the blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitoring — or pulse oximetry — feature completely on the company’s latest Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 models. The features could be disabled in the future, in order to circumvent the ban on importing the latest smartwatches in the US imposed by the ITC last year for infringing on two patents held by medical device maker Masimo.

According to the report, disabling the pulse oximetry feature on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 would mean that the products would no longer infringe on the firm’s patents. The features would also not affect existing owners in the US, or all owners outside the country. The ITC ordered a ban on imports of the two smartwatch models in the US after deciding that the Cupertino company’s products infringed on Masimo’s patents related to pulse oximetry features.

Meanwhile, Apple told the publication that until a US appeals court decides on a stay on the import ban during the ITC’s appeal period, Apple will continue to offer support for pulse oximetry on the Apple Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2. The ITC has opposed Apple’s motion for a stay on the import ban, stating that the company didn’t face ‘irreparable harm’ from the ban as sales of only some models were affected.

Apple put both smartwatch models on sale again in the US at the end of last month, after it won an interim stay from an appellate court in Washington following a ban that saw it pull the listing for the products on December 21 and take them off shelves in the US on December 24. The decision of the appeals court on whether to stay the ban for the duration of the appeal period, is expected to arrive in the coming days.

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