**Apple Challenges Ruling on Blood-Oxygen Sensor Restriction for Apple Watches**
Today, Apple appeared at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit aiming to overturn a decision that prohibited the U.S. sale of Apple Watches featuring blood-oxygen sensors. This legal confrontation holds substantial consequences for both Apple and the medical technology firm Masimo, which initiated the legal proceedings.
### A Brief Overview
The dispute between Apple and Masimo commenced in 2021 when Masimo accused Apple of violating multiple patents pertaining to blood-oxygen sensing technology. In 2023, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favor of Masimo, concluding that Apple infringed its intellectual property rights. As a result, the ITC imposed an import ban on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2.
After the ruling, Apple temporarily ceased sales of both models in the U.S. but later resumed after obtaining a temporary hold on the ban. Nonetheless, when the court reinstated the ban in January 2024, Apple had to disable the blood-oxygen feature in newly sold models to align with the ruling.
In today’s appeal, Apple seeks to completely overturn the ITC’s ruling, reinstate the blood-oxygen capability on U.S.-sold watches, and persist in providing this functionality to its customers.
### Today’s Appeal
During the oral presentations, Apple’s lawyer, Joseph Mueller, contended that the ban unjustly deprived millions of Apple Watch users of the blood-oxygen feature. He maintained that Masimo’s assertions were baseless, emphasizing that the company’s first wearable with blood-oxygen tracking did not debut until 2022, two years following Apple’s launch of the feature.
Mueller remarked, “The ban lacked justification as Masimo only possessed prototypes of a smartwatch with pulse oximetry capabilities when it lodged its ITC complaint.” In reply, Masimo’s lawyer argued that Apple was mistaken in claiming that a “finished product” was essential to justify the ITC’s ruling.
The judges seemed to ponder whether Masimo’s subsequent development of a rival smartwatch justified the import ban, indicating that Apple’s arguments may have found favor with the court.
### 9to5Mac’s Perspective
While the court has not yet rendered a decision, today’s session suggested that Apple is altering its strategy. With earlier efforts to invalidate Masimo’s patents unsuccessful, Apple is now asserting that a patent dispute involving prototypes should not be adequate reason to exclude a flagship product from the market. The result of this appeal could have profound effects for both companies and the wearable technology industry as a whole.
As the situation progresses, the tech community will be closely observing to determine if Apple’s new legal strategy will produce a positive result.
