APPLE CORE
EDITED BY ROB MEAD-GREEN
Apple introduced a blood oxygen monitor in the Apple Watch in 2020, and it’s at the heart of the company’s patent dispute with Masimo.
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Apple Watch faces US sales ban
Patent dispute sees potentially disastrous outcome
A
pple loves control, which is why a recent legal dispute involving the Apple Watch will have caused the company so much alarm. Long – and pretty big – story short: the Apple Watch could be banned from sale in the US.
The saga percolated into most people’s vision on 18 December 2023, when Apple announced that it would comply with an order from the International Trade Commission (ITC) that barred the importation of certain Apple Watch models to the US. This prevented the company from selling the devices online or in-store, and it also could not offer exchanges.
But the story began much earlier than that. The Apple Watch order came about due to an injunction filed by medical tech maker Masimo. According to the company, Apple expressed an interest in its blood oxygen technology in 2013. However, soon after that, Apple began poaching its key workers, according to Masimo claims.
In autumn 2020, Apple launched the Apple Watch Series 6, which was the first model to contain a blood oxygen monitor. Earlier that year, Masimo had filed a complaint with the US District Court in Central California, which alleged that Apple had stolen its trade secrets and infringed upon its patents.