This is what they call a legal kerfuffle.
The Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 ban will resume today at 5 AM ET, with the smartwatches remaining banned until the appeal has concluded.
Apple’s bid to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to keep the Apple Watch as-is on the market has failed. As a result, the Apple Watch sales and import ban resume imminently.
Apple is currently in the process of writing a software patch that will disable the feature. It’s unknown if this will apply to every Apple Watch on the market, but preliminary indications are that it will only apply to devices it imports and sells.
On December 25, an ITC order banned the import and sale of Apple Watch models that infringed on patents owned by Masimo, preventing their sale in the United States. On Wednesday, Apple managed to secure a reprieve.
On December 27, Apple managed to secure an appeals court win to delay the import ban, allowing for the models to be sold in the United States once again.
The company filed the motion on December 26, citing the potential for “irreparable harm” to its business.
Third-party retailers who sell the Apple Watch remain unaffected, though they will have to depend on existing stock on hand for the moment.
The issue, as mentioned before, centers around a patent infringement dispute between Apple and medical firm Masimo, which filed a lawsuit against Apple in the U.S. District Court, alleging that the blood pulse oximeter in the Apple Watch violated patents and that Apple had stolen trade secrets. In 2021, this was followed by a filing with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). In the complaint, Masimo accused Apple of unfairly copying its products’ blood oxygen sensing feature.
Apple tried to stop the ban by filing a motion for a stay of execution, but on December 20, the ITC denied it. The ITC ban was set to begin on December 25.
The White House confirmed on December 19 that it was monitoring the potential ban, but it didn’t intervene and allowed the ITC ban to commence as ordered.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider