Although the court previously ruled in favor of Apple and allowed it to avoid the patent dispute with a "redesigned" version a few days ago, allowing the Apple Watch blood oxygen detection function to return to the United States, Masimo has obviously not given up. Earlier, it filed a complaint with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).File a lawsuit, accusing the agency of approving Apple's "redesign" of the blood oxygen function to circumvent the previous import ban without a full hearing, and asking the court to rule that if the blood oxygen detection function is not removed, the relevant Apple Watch models should be banned from import into the United States.
The lawsuit between Apple and Masimo began in 2021, with the latter accusing Apple of unauthorized use of its patented optical blood oxygen measurement technology. In 2023, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favor of Masimo, temporarily halting sales of Apple's Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the United States. To circumvent the ban, Apple removed the blood oxygen monitoring app from its models sold in the United States.
In its ongoing litigation with Masimo, Apple successfully persuaded a jury to support its arguments and won the lawsuit alleging infringement of Masimo's earlier watch designs, the W1 and Freedom. However, it only won the minimum infringement compensation of US$250. However, Apple's main goal was not to obtain a large amount of compensation, but to restrict the sale of all Masimo smartwatch products in the United States by accusing Masimo of infringing its design patents.
However, the jury did not find that Masimo's new watch design infringed Apple's intellectual property rights, so Masimo still considered the jury's ruling a "victory," and also stated that the jury's ruling actually only affected Masimo's discontinued products.
Recently, Apple announced a "redesigned" blood oxygen function for the Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2. Although it was stated that the new design does not directly calculate blood oxygen information through the Apple Watch, but instead processes it through the paired iPhone and then displays the results in the Health App, Apple also stated that this update is in line with the results recently determined by the US Customs.
Masimo countered, stating that it was not informed of the ruling until Apple announced it, and that the ruling took effect on August 8st, without the customary hearing process for both parties. Therefore, Masimo believes that the US Customs' action "exceeded its authority" and has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the ruling and to prohibit Apple from importing or selling the new Apple Watch without the blood oxygen function removed.
"Every day this unlawful ruling continues to deny us our rights to be free from unfair trade practices and causes irreparable damage to our competitive position in the U.S. marketplace," Masimo said in a statement.
For Apple, blood oxygen monitoring has been a key health feature since the Apple Watch Series 6. The current functionality limitations due to patent disputes not only impact product integrity but also pose challenges to its competitiveness in the wearable health monitoring market. As the Masimo lawsuit progresses, whether Apple will pursue further settlements, pay licensing fees, or continue to seek technological circumvention will remain a key focus.
