Starting December 26, visitors to Apple stores in the United States won’t find Apple Watch 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2 available, as a court order prohibits the sale of the latest watches in all Apple stores in the U.S. This decision stems from a lawsuit filed by Masimo, a company specializing in medical technology, accusing Apple of violating patents related to the development of oxygen saturation measurement features in Apple Watches.
According to the October decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission, Apple is prohibited from selling its latest smartwatches following the conviction in the lawsuit brought by Masimo. Apple had halted the sale of Apple Watch 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 through its website starting December 21.
Until December 24, there was hope for Apple to overcome this crisis, expected to cost them up to $5 billion in annual sales if the U.S. President, Joe Biden, intervened to stop the implementation of the U.S. Commission’s decision. However, the winds did not blow in Apple’s favor.
The Commission also rejected Apple’s request to postpone the enforcement of the ban until its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was considered to review Masimo’s lawsuit.
Masimo’s CEO expressed openness to settling the lawsuit in a television interview with Bloomberg. However, he clarified that for this to happen, Apple’s management must first engage with Masimo’s management to reach an agreement that satisfies all parties.
In recent weeks, Apple has been working on a software update that changes the way oxygen saturation data is collected and analyzed on Apple smartwatches in an attempt to avoid the ban. However, Masimo’s CEO emphasized that software updates would not be sufficient to resolve the dispute since Masimo’s patents involve designs and ideas for physical components that Apple used in manufacturing the oxygen sensor in its watches.
According to the lawsuit, Masimo accused Apple of using a range of data, information, and documents shared by Masimo during meetings between the two companies in 2013, setting the stage for a long-term partnership to develop Apple Watch. The first generation of Apple Watch was launched in 2014 as a result of this collaboration.
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