Update: Wednesday at 10:45 pm. Apple says in a statement that it “strongly disagrees” with the US International Trade Commission's decision, but that it is taking steps to comply with the ban. Starting Thursday morning, new versions of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 without the blood oxygen sensing feature will be available for sale on Apple's website and in its retail stores in the US. The company also says Watch models with the sensor that have already been purchased will not be impacted.
The newest Apple Watch models have to take another time-out.
Apple must stop selling the current version of the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 by the end of the day on Thursday, according to a federal court ruling.
At the end of 2023, Apple was barred from selling the two wearables by the US International Trade Commission because of a dispute over a patent for the technology Apple uses in the watches’ blood-oxygen sensor. Apple had appealed that ruling and was granted a temporary stay on the ban while the court reviewed the case.
But on Wednesday, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit declined to extend the stay any further, forcing Apple to stop selling the two Watch models in question, and setting the company on the long path toward a formal appeal. The ban goes back into effect at 5 pm Eastern on Thursday, January 18.
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. This sensor tech was added to the Apple Watch Series 6, and it has remained in the device’s design through the current Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models. (Apple stopped selling the older watches as new models were introduced, so the 9 and Ultra 2 are the only ones named in the ban.) A federal judge ruled in Masimo’s favor, saying that Apple had infringed on the company’s patents, and the ITC upheld that ruling in October 2023.
The fate of the newest Apple Watch models has hung in the balance ever since. Immediately after the ruling, Apple started taking preemptive steps to comply with a coming ban. Just before Christmas, the company pulled the watches from its physical and online stores, though the Watches were still available at online retailers like Amazon and at non-Apple brick-and-mortars over the holiday. The pause in sales lasted a few days and resumed just after Christmas, before halting again this week.
Apple will lodge an appeal in federal court, but that could take a year to resolve, and there’s no guarantee the company will win. In the meantime, Apple cannot sell any Series 9 or Ultra 2 smartwatches that contain the blood-oxygen sensing tech. Apple has come up with a workaround to disable the offending sensor in existing smartwatches with a software update, and has redesigned the new Watch models to remove the sensing capability entirely.
Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has reported that Apple has already shipped the new versions of the watches to Apple Stores with instructions to begin selling them once the ban takes effect.
Wednesday’s court ruling does not affect the Watch Series 8, which has the blood oxygen sensor is still available at many stores. The ITC's ban is on imports of devices, so watches that have already been imported are not affected. The ban also does not affect the Watch SE, which has no blood-tracking sensors. The SE is Apple’s most affordable version of the Apple Watch, and it's the top overall pick in our Best Apple Watches guide.
