Apple will halt sales of its Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 just days before Christmas due to a patent dispute with medical technology company Masimo over a blood oxygen monitor included in both models, multiple media outlets are reporting.
Online sales in Apple. com will stop. On Dec. 21, while in-store retail sales will stop on Dec. 24, the company said in a statement to several media outlets.
The International Trade Commission ruled earlier this year that Apple had infringed Masimo’s patent on its blood oxygen monitor, but the resolution is currently under formal review, and the White House is ready to allow the resolution to pass or veto until Christmas.
But Apple decided to pull the watches from the market to “preemptively comply if the resolution stands,” the company said.
Apple Watch models that don’t come with the blood oxygen monitor will still be on the market and the watches in question will still be sold outdoors in the U. S. U. S.
Masimo and Apple are locked in a years-long legal war over intellectual assets related to its pulse oximeter, with CEO Joe Kiani claiming Apple has confiscated its workers and industry secrets. Apple has denied those claims. One of the lawsuits stemming from the dispute ended in a mistrial in May. The case is scheduled to be retried in California in October 2024. Apple also filed its own lawsuit accusing Masimo of infringing on Apple Watch patents in Delaware. But the Patent Aspect Commission’s ruling with Masimo has given the California-based tech company significant leverage in its legal efforts, as Forbes reported.
Apple spokesperson Nikki Rothberg told the Verge the company disagrees with the ITC decision and is “pursuing a range of legal and technical options to ensure that Apple Watch is available to customers.”
$65 million. That’s what Masimo founder and CEO Joe Kiani says his company spent on an ongoing patent and secret industry dispute with Apple over its pulse oximeter, as Forbes has reported in the past.