Apple will no longer sell the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2
Implications of a Supreme Court Judgment on Apple’s Import Trademarks for Pulse Oxygen Monitoring
“Should the order stand, Apple will continue to take all measures to return Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 to customers in the US as soon as possible,” Rothberg says. That would likely include an appeal in the Federal Circuit.
Right now, it’s unclear whether the ITC import ban will stand. It’s currently undergoing a presidential review period, and President Joe Biden will have the opportunity to veto the ban. Presidential vetos, however, are uncommon, though Apple has benefitted from them in the past. The ITC had imposed an import ban on certain iPad models, but Barack Obama vetoed it. That said, Biden chose to uphold another ITC ruling that would see Apple Watch imports banned over the EKG feature. The presidential review period ends December 25th, so we’ll have to see if things change between now and then.
The patent disputes between Apple and Masimo have been thorny over the past few years. Masimo is known for its pulse oximeter. Masimo filed two separate cases — one with the US District Court in the Central District of California and a second with the ITC —claiming that Apple infringed on its pulse oximetry tech. This particular import ban is a result of the latter.
The suspension follows a long-running dispute with the medical tech company Masimo. As Engadget reports, Masimo sued Apple in 2021. The company alleged that Apple had infringed on one of its patents related to light-based blood-oxygen monitoring. The ITC upheld the judge’s ruling that Apple had violations of the patents. The decision then led to a 60-day presidential review period, which expires on December 25. Apple is taking precautions to comply.
It’s rare for a company to block the sale of another company’s products, because they are similar to the one that you are buying. In 2016, Fitbit attempted to block the import of Jawbone products in a patent case, but dropped its suit after realizing that … well, Jawbone doesn’t sell that many fitness trackers anyway. To see this happen to a Goliath company like Apple, the maker of the best-selling watches in the worlds, is truly a feat.
