Today, Apple appeared before the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an effort to overturn a ruling that blocked U.S.sales of Apple Watches with blood-oxygen sensors back in late 2023.
Here’s how it went.A quick refresher The legal dispute between Apple and Masimo began in 2021, when the medical technology company accused Apple of infringing several of its patents related to blood-oxygen sensing.In 2023, the U.S.
International Trade Commission (ITC) sided with Masimo, finding that Apple had violated its intellectual property, and issuing an import ban on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2.Apple briefly pulled both models from sale in the U.S., then resumed sales after securing a temporary pause on the ban.But when the court reinstated the ban in January 2024, Apple was forced to turn off the blood-oxygen feature in newly sold models to comply.
In today’s appeal, Apple seeks to fully reverse the ITC’s ruling, restore the blood-oxygen capability on U.S.-sold watches, and be allowed to continue offering the feature to its customers.Today’s appeal As reported by , during oral arguments today, Apple’s attorney, Joseph Mueller, told a three-judge panel that the ban had wrongly “deprived millions of Apple Watch users” of the blood oxygen feature.He characterized Masimo’s claims as unjustified, noting that the company’s first wearable with blood-oxygen tracking didn’t launch until 2022, two years after Apple introduced the feature: Apple’s argument seems to have landed, as the judges reportedly questioned whether Masimo’s later development of a competing smartwatch really warranted the import ban in the first place.
9to5Mac’s take While the court has yet to issue a decision, today’s hearing made clear that with its past attempts to invalidate Masimo’s patents unsuccessful, Apple is now pursuing a different angle: arguing that a patent dispute over prototypes shouldn’t be enough to pull a flagship product off the market.Whether the new strategy will pay off, we’ll likely soon find out.Apple Watch deals on Amazon 40mm Apple Watch SE 2: $169, down from $249 42mm Apple Watch Series 10: $299, down from $399 46mm Apple Watch Series 10: $329, down from $429 49mm Apple Watch Ultra 2: $649, down from $799 You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day.
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