Apple Urges US Appeals Court to Overturn ITC’s Apple Watch Import Ban

Apple urged a U.S. appeals court docket on Friday to overturn a U.S. commerce tribunal’s determination to ban imports of some Apple Watches in a patent dispute with medical-monitoring know-how firm Masimo.

Apple informed the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the U.S. Worldwide Commerce Fee’s determination was primarily based on a “collection of substantively faulty patent rulings,” and that Masimo failed to indicate it had invested in making competing U.S. merchandise that might justify the order.

Representatives for Apple and Masimo didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon the submitting.

Irvine, California-based Masimo has accused Apple of hiring away its staff and stealing its pulse oximetry know-how after discussing a possible collaboration. Apple first launched pulse oximetry to its Series 6 Apple Watches in 2020.

Masimo satisfied the ITC on Dec. 26 to dam imports of Apple’s latest-edition Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches after discovering that their know-how for studying blood-oxygen ranges infringed Masimo’s patents.

Apple quickly resumed gross sales of the watches the subsequent day after persuading the Federal Circuit to pause the ban. The appeals court docket reinstated the ban in January, main Apple to take away pulse oximetry capabilities from watches bought in the course of the attraction, which Apple has mentioned may final at the very least a 12 months.

U.S. Customs and Border Safety individually decided in January that redesigned variations of the watches didn’t violate Masimo’s rights and wouldn’t be not topic to the ban. Masimo mentioned in a court docket submitting that the watches “definitively don’t comprise pulse oximetry performance.”

Apple informed the Federal Circuit on Friday that the ban couldn’t stand as a result of a Masimo wearable lined by the patents was “purely hypothetical” when it filed its ITC grievance in 2021.

The tech large additionally argued that Masimo’s patents had been invalid and that its watches didn’t infringe them.

© Thomson Reuters 2024