Apple and Masimo back in court over Apple Watch import ban appeal

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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 Reuters, 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:

“Mueller told the court on Monday that the ban was unjustified because Masimo only had prototypes of a smartwatch with pulse oximetry features when it had filed its ITC complaint. [Masimo’s attorney, Joseph] Re responded that Apple was wrong to argue that a ‘finished product’ was necessary to justify the ITC’s decision.”

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.