Apple Watch users can no longer use the popular health app
Apple Can’t Recover From the Trade Commission’s Indirect Detection of Blood Oxygen Levels: An Apple Watch Best Buy Guide
Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has reported that Apple has already shipped the newly redesigned versions of the watches to Apple Stores with instructions to begin selling them once the ban takes effect.
The U.S. International Trade Commission found in October that some Apple Watches had violated Masimo’s patents, and issued a ban on the import of watches that included the technology.
The court ruling does not affect the Watch SE, as it has no blood-tracing sensors. The SE is the most affordable version of the Apple Watch, and it is the overall pick in our Best Apple Watches guide.
In a statement, Masimo founder and CEO Joe Kiani wrote that the court’s decision to reinstate the feature ban “affirms that even the largest and most powerful companies must respect the intellectual rights of American inventors and must deal with the consequences when they are caught infringing others’ patents.”
Apple wants the Federal Circuit to reverse the trade commission’s decision.
Starting Thursday, the ability to measure blood oxygen levels will no longer be available on newly purchased Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 models.