Apple to Pause Selling New Versions of Its Watch After Losing Patent Dispute (2024)

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Apple to Pause Selling New Versions of Its Watch After Losing Patent Dispute? ›

Apple Inc. will stop selling the latest versions of its smartwatch in the US due to a patent dispute, taking some of its best-selling devices off the market during the busy holiday season. Sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 will be halted on the company's online store on Dec.

Apple Inc. will stop selling the latest versions of its smartwatch in the US due to a patent dispute, taking some of its best-selling devices off the market during the busy holiday season. Sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 will be halted on the company's online store on Dec.

The restarting of sales comes hours after a federal appeals court paused a sales and import ban that covered both devices. Apple was banned from selling both products in the US after the US International Trade Commission found that the company had violated patents from the medical device maker Masimo.

Apple has resumed selling the latest Apple Watches on its website after a federal appeals court paused a sales and import ban.

In December, the ITC imposed a ban on the Series 9 and Ultra 2 models of the Apple Watch after finalizing its decision that the blood oxygen sensors in the devices did indeed infringe on patents owned by Masimo and its subsidiary Cercacor Laboratories.

Apple sees steep falls, but remains unchallenged

Overall, Apple Watch shipments declined 19.1% year over year while hearables including AirPods and Beats declined 18.8% during the quarter. Apple's share of the market fell from 24.5% in the first quarter of 2023 to 18.2% in the same quarter this year.

Apple has once again been banned from selling two smartwatch models in the US, while a legal battle continues over a patent dispute. The tech giant was earlier allowed to sell its Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches while proceedings were ongoing - but a US appeals court has since reversed that decision.

The ITC issued the ban after finding that Apple infringed on blood oxygen saturation technology patented by a company called Masimo. It also ordered Apple to stop selling any previously-imported devices with the infringed-upon tech.

Apple announced Monday that it will stop selling its Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models in the United States. Neither watch will be available to order from the U.S. Apple website as of 3 p.m. ET Thursday. Inventory will be pulled from Apple retailers after December 24, the company said in a statement.

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Why is the Apple Watch 9 banned? ›

The ITC initially banned sales of the Watch because of a patent dispute brought by the medical technology company Masimo, which sued Apple in 2021. The company alleged that Apple had infringed on its patents for a smartwatch sensor that uses lights to measure the concentration of oxygen in the wearer's blood.

Apple has its steepest quarterly decline in iPhone sales since pandemic's outset The 10% drop in year-over-year iPhone sales for the January-March period is latest sign of weakness in a product that generates most of Apple's revenue.

Apple has stopped selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 smartwatches on its U.S. website, CNBC checks show. “Following December 24, 2023, Apple no longer sells Apple Watch units in the United States with the ability to measure blood oxygen,” according to fine print on Apple's product pages.

Online orders for the Series 9 and Ultra 2 models will end Thursday, and the watches will be cleared out of the retail stores by Sunday, which is Christmas Eve. The pause in Apple Watch sales comes as the tech giant prepares to comply with an International Trade Court ruling that places an import ban on the products.

The company is preparing for a looming ban of Apple Watch models with a blood oxygen sensor — a feature first added to the lineup in 2020 — that Masimo Corp. says it invented. The International Trade Commission ruled in October that Apple violates Masimo patents and would need to halt sales of infringing devices.

The jury awarded VirnetX $502.8 million in 2020 after a separate jury determined that Apple's iPhones and iPads infringed patents related to virtual private networks. The patent office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board allows petitioners to challenge the validity of specific patents.