Apple urged a U.S. appeals court on Friday to overturn a U.S. trade tribunal’s decision to ban imports of some Apple Watches in a patent dispute with medical-monitoring technology company Masimo.
Apple told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the U.S. International Trade Commission’s decision was based on a “series of substantively defective patent rulings,” and that Masimo failed to show it had invested in making competing U.S. products that would justify the order.
Representatives for Apple and Masimo did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the filing.
Irvine, California-based Masimo has accused Apple of hiring away its employees and stealing its pulse oximetry technology after discussing a potential collaboration. Apple first introduced pulse oximetry to its Series 6 Apple Watches in 2020.
Masimo convinced the ITC on Dec. 26 to block imports of Apple’s latest-edition Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches after finding that their technology for reading blood-oxygen levels infringed Masimo’s patents.
Apple temporarily resumed sales of the watches the next day after persuading the Federal Circuit to pause the ban. The appeals court reinstated the ban in January, leading Apple to remove pulse oximetry capabilities from watches sold during the appeal, which Apple has said could last at least a year.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection separately determined in January that redesigned versions of the watches did not violate Masimo’s rights and would not be not subject to the ban. Masimo said in a court filing that the watches “definitively do not contain pulse oximetry functionality.”
Apple told the Federal Circuit on Friday that the ban could not stand because a Masimo wearable covered by the patents was “purely hypothetical” when it filed its ITC complaint in 2021.
The tech giant also argued that Masimo’s patents were invalid and that its watches did not infringe them.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
Hotel groups are under increasing pressure to standardise quality across properties while reducing operational costs.…
The 2026 boxing calendar is hitting summer with some great fights on the books Jul…
Italian firm Vespera has created a restomod version of the legendary Mercedes-Benz 190 Evo II.…
Untreated cavities send thousands of young children in the United States to emergency departments each…
Microsoft is closing the legacy Microsoft Threat Intelligence portal on August 1, leaving security teams…
Germany recorded continued growth in Indian visitor arrivals during the first five months of 2026,…