Apple has scored a major win for its redesigned smartwatch, according to the latest ruling from the US International Trade Commission. The federal agency ruled against reinstating an import ban on Apple Watches, allowing the tech giant to continue selling its devices with the retrofitted blood-oxygen monitoring technology.
The ITC decided to end the case and cited a preliminary ruling by one of its judges in March that claimed Apple’s redesigned smartwatch did not infringe a patent held by medical tech company Masimo, which has long been embroiled in Apple Watch lawsuits. Apple thanked the ITC in a statement and said that “Massimo has waged a relentless legal campaign against Apple and nearly all of his claims have been rejected.” We contacted Massimo for comment and will update the story when we hear back.
The latest decision may bring some closure to the long-running legal dispute between Masimo and Apple. The patent battle began in 2021, when Massimo filed the first petition against Apple, requesting an import ban on Apple Watches. The ITC ruled that Apple infringed Masimo’s patent, resulting in a ban on previous imports and requiring the Apple Watch maker to redesign the blood-oxygen reading feature in some models. However, Massimo was not satisfied with this conclusion and demanded another import ban on updated Apple Watch models. Now that the ITC has ruled against it, Massimo is left with the option to appeal the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Although Massimo is currently losing this legal battle, it is facing Apple on multiple fronts. In November, a federal jury sided with Massimo and ruled that Apple must pay $634 million in a separate patent infringement case.
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