Apple to pause sales of some smartwatches after ITC ruling

(CN) — Apple will pause U.S. sales of two recent smartwatch models following an October ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission that the company can’t import devices that infringe a medical technology company’s patents for measuring blood oxygen.

Apple said in a statement first provided to 9to5Mac on Monday that the 60-day presidential review period of the ITC decision ends on Dec. 25 and that it is preemptively taking steps to comply with the ruling should it stand. As such, it is pausing sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 from Apple.com starting Dec. 21, and from Apple retail locations after Dec. 24.

“Apple’s teams work tirelessly to create products and services that empower users with industry-leading health, wellness, and safety features,” the company said. “Apple strongly disagrees with the order and is pursuing a range of legal and technical options to ensure that Apple Watch is available to customers.”

Should the order stand, Apple said it will continue to take all measures to return the two models to U.S. shoppers as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, sales of the Apple Watch SE, which doesn’t incorporate the disputed technology to monitor blood oxygen, will continue.

The ITC findings came in the long-running patent dispute between Apple and Masimo, an Irvine, California-based maker of medical monitoring products.

In January, a U.S. administrative law judge concluded that Apple violated the 1930 U.S. Trade Act by importing and selling in the U.S. certain Apple Watches with light-based pulse oximetry functionality and components that infringe one of Masimo’s pulse oximeter patents. That set the stage for the ITC to consider whether to implement an import ban.

In its Oct. 26 decision, the commission said it had determined that the appropriate form of relief was a limited exclusion order prohibiting “the unlicensed entry of infringing wearable electronic devices with light-based pulse oximetry functionality and components thereof manufactured by or on behalf of Apple or any of its affiliated companies, parents, subsidiaries, or other related business entities, or its successors or assigns.”

Masimo welcomed the October ruling, saying it sent “a powerful message that even the world’s largest company is not above the law.”

The two companies have also been slugging it out in federal court in Santa Ana, California, where Masimo sued Apple for damages in early 2020 claiming patent infringement and theft of its trade secrets. A jury deadlocked this year and the case may be headed for a new trial in 2024.

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