Masimo, the owners of Masimo Consumer and the former Sound United has had an early victory with Apple halting the sale of their Apple Watch in the USA stores after losing a patent infringement case, dealing it a blow during the holiday sales season with retailers unable to get new supplies from Apple.
The iPhone maker said it would “pre-emptively” halt U.S. sales of two of its latest Apple Watch models, the Series 9 and Ultra 2, on Dec. 21 through its own website and after Dec. 24 in physical stores.
Apple was forced into the move after the iPhone maker lost a recent court case that saw the US International Trade Commission issued a “limited exclusion order” against the products in October, threatening a ban on imports of the devices.
A U.S. judge found in January that a headline feature of Apple’s latest watches, a blood oxygen sensor, infringed patents owned by medical device maker Masimo.
Apple is currently appealing against the ITC ruling.
They are also punting on a presidential review by Joe Biden, who has the power to veto the ban.
Such vetoes are rare, but President Barack Obama intervened in Apple’s favour in 2013 to allow iPhone imports to continue after the company lost an ITC case against Samsung.
If Biden sides with Masimo and Apple’s appeals are unsuccessful, it may have to modify the Watch’s software to remove the blood oxygen feature in order to resume sales or pay Masimo a patent fee for the technology.
To date both sides have spent millions on the fight with Apple’s chief lawyer convicted of criminal offences during the time the case was being fought.
“Apple strongly disagrees with the order and is pursuing a range of legal and technical options to ensure that Apple Watch is available to customers,” the company said.
“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.”
Masimo chief executive Joe Kiani said in October that the ITC’s ruling “sends a powerful message that even the world’s largest company is not above the law”. Last year, Apple sued Masimo, saying that its smartwatch infringed on the iPhone maker’s patents.
“The ITC undertook a thorough legal process and its expert judgment in this matter should be respected, protecting intellectual property rights and maintaining public trust in the United States’ patent system,” Masimo said on Monday.
Apple is also embroiled in another legal battle over smartwatch patents with another medical device maker, AliveCor.
