Apple Suspends Online Sales of Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2 Amid Patent Dispute

By Brian Bell  |  December 22, 2023 | 2:25pm
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Apple Suspends Online Sales of Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2 Amid Patent Dispute

Buying Apple’s latest smartwatches is temporarily off the table after the tech giant suspended first-party online sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 Thursday.

The company voluntarily halted sales through its website Thursday afternoon in response to a U.S. International Trade Commission ruling that deemed Apple infringed on two patents from medical device firm Masimo related to the pulse oximeter tech included in Apple’s newest wearables. Apple will also end sales of the devices in Apple stores on Dec. 24.

The ITC ruling is the latest development in a years-long legal battle between Masimo and Apple over multiple medical device patents that Masimo claims Apple infringed upon in its devices. Masimo originally filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court before filing a separate claim with the ITC in 2021. Apple filed multiple countersuits in 2022 after Masimo produced its own smartwatch, calling it an “Apple Watch clone” and claiming it infringed on five patents filed by Apple.

While the other legal battles remain ongoing, the ITC ruled in favor of Masimo in January and ordered Apple to stop importing and selling units of the two wearables in October. The ITC’s order doesn’t go into effect until Dec. 26 due to a 60-day presidential review period where the Biden administration could veto the measure and allow sales of the devices to resume, though it appears that such a veto is unlikely to come.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple decided to stop sales of the devices early to “preemptively [take] steps to comply should the ruling stand.” If the ITC ruling survives the presidential review period, the import ban would go into effect on Dec. 26 and Apple wouldn’t be able to sell the devices to third-party retailers.

“Should the order stand, Apple will continue to take all measures to return Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 to customers in the U.S. as soon as possible,” Apple said in a statement.

Masimo CEO Joe Kiani commented on the news during an appearance on Bloomberg TV earlier this week, saying Apple got “caught with their hands in the cookie jar.”

“This is not an accidental infringement. This is a deliberate taking of our intellectual property, Kiani said. “I am glad the world can now see we are the true inventors and creators of these technologies.”

Kiani stated that he hasn’t been in contact with Apple but would be open to settling the dispute while referencing the decade of bad blood between the two companies that includes failed discussions of a partnership between the company, claims from both companies of poaching engineers and the legal battle that spawned from the release of the Apple Watch Series 6 in 2020—the first Apple Watch to feature pulse oximetry.

The ITC ruling won’t completely wipe out Apple Watch sales, though. The Apple Watch SE, which doesn’t feature the disputed pulse oximetry tech, is still currently on sale.

 

 
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