Apple Watch ban back on, court denies Apple's appeal to keep it on the market
The Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 ban will start again on January 18 at 5 PM ET, and will remain banned until the appeal has concluded.
Apple Watch Series 9 (left) and Apple Watch Ultra (right)
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 resumes imminently.
To work around the ban, Apple has devised a software patch, which disables the feature. It's not yet clear if this will apply to every Apple Watch on the market, but preliminary indication 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.
In an appeals court win on December 27, Apple managed to convince the court to delay the import ban, effectively allowing the sale of the wearable devices in the United States once again.
Apple filed the motion on December 26, citing the potential "irreparable harm" to its business. December 26 was the earliest opportunity for Apple, as it had to wait until after the 60-day White House review window elapsed on December 25.
Third-party retailers who sell the Apple Watch remain unaffected, though they will have to depend on existing stock on hand for the moment.
In 2020, medical firm Masimo 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.
The Apple Watch ban revolves around its blood oxygen health feature
Masimo accused Apple of unfairly copying its products' blood oxygen sensing feature.
Masimo also reasoned the U.S. public would not be affected by an Apple Watch import ban as the sensor isn't "essential to the public health or welfare." This was due to Apple's warnings in fine print that the measurements from the sensor should not be relied upon for medical purposes.
Although the District Court trial was declared a mistrial and did not resume, the ITC ruled in favor of Masimo in January.
On October 26, the ITC issued an order preventing Apple from importing any Apple Watch models that violated Masimo's patents following a complete review. This decision triggered a 60-day review period for the White House.
On December 18, Apple announced that it would stop selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the United States. Online sales were halted on December 21, and Apple Store sales were paused on December 24.
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.
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Comments
One does genuinely wonder, however, what Apple's end game is. They get into these situations where they become so convinced of their own piety they tend to ride the train straight to hell instead of looking for a convenient and practical way to get off. A little humility and less hubris would serve Apple well as a brand and as a company.
Apple will find a way but it will take until watch 10 or 11. No quick fix here.
(b) Why doesn't Apple just BUY Masimo and be done with it?
(a) If someone rear ended your car and demanded you'd pay for their damages, you'd simply write a check?
(b) Why wouldn't you just buy their car and be done with it?
Poaching is not illegal, and neither is designing around a patent, regardless of whether it is done with or without "poached" employees. And of course, bringing a product to market is going to be faster if you have the help of your competitor's former employees, which is why every company on earth, including Masimo, has done it. All of that may repulse your own sense of morality, but none of it standing alone establishes patent infringement or any other tort.
Clear infringement by Apple should lead to payment but patents were never intended to be weaponized to the point of preventing inventiveness. That is what trolls do. In this case, I believe that there is a better than good chance that the remaining 2 claims will be invalidated due to obviousness. The patent strategy by Masimo seems to have been a strategic firing at Apple, timed to the release of their W1 watch which Apple argues infringes design and functionality patents. That case is yet to come to court. Masimo claims seem to center on some sort of 'opaque extrusion with chamfered edges' to allow light to better reach the sensor. A chamfered edge is a cut on the edge or corner of something that makes it slope slightly rather than being perfectly square. This seems very very trivial and if this 'invention' is what is causing the import ban, well I hope that Apple not only wins, but is able to assign all their legal costs and lost sales to Masimo. While I think that Masimo is not a 'non practising entity' troll, they sure are acting like one.
Their market capitalization is $6.25 billion, a fraction of the $61 billion Cash-on-Hand that Apple has in petty cash.
And Apple gets all Masimo's other medical tech which fits right in with Apple's business model.
Maybe Apple is trying to drive down Masimo's stock price before scooping them up.