Smartwatches: Apple is released to sell models – 12/27/2023 – Tech

Apple won a victory in court and may temporarily resume selling the Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatch models, according to information from Bloomberg.

This Wednesday (27), an appeals court in Washington published the decision in which it accepted the company’s request and suspended the decision of the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban the sale of the products .

The court requested that the commission respond by January 10 to Apple’s request to allow the sale during the legal dispute. Sales were suspended by Apple in the United States on December 21st in online stores and on December 24th in physical stores.

The measure complied with an ITC decision to prohibit sales due to a patent dispute related to technology that allows the measurement of oxygen in users’ blood. With the court’s decision, published this Wednesday, the sale has been provisionally approved.

Apple is trying to defend a business that generates about $17 billion a year and appealed a ban on its smartwatches after the White House refused to overturn the measure. The ban was triggered by a patent dispute with medical technology maker Masimo Corp.

The ITC ruled in October that Apple infringed two Masimo health technology patents with a blood oxygen sensor in its watches. The White House had 60 days to review the import ban, with the decision made by US Trade Representative Katherine Tai. Masimo shares fell as much as 6.3% with the pause.

On Tuesday, Tai refused Apple’s request and claimed the decision was made “after careful consultation.” In a statement, the company stated that it disagreed with the resolution and that it would seek other legal options to obtain release.

Hours later, the technology giant granted another request, now made to a federal court in Washington, which temporarily released the sale.

To resolve the impasse

Apple has developed a software update for the Apple Watch that it believes will resolve the issue. She sent the draft of this update to the US customs agency and, in a document presented this Tuesday (26), said that the government is scheduled to decide on January 12 whether to approve or reject the changes.

Experts fine-tune the way the technology determines oxygen saturation and presents the data to customers, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Apple team believes that software changes — rather than a more complicated hardware overhaul — will be enough to bring the device back to store shelves. But the patents at the center of the dispute are mainly related to hardware, including the way light is emitted from the skin to measure the amount of oxygen in a person’s blood.

Masimo said a software fix would be an insufficient solution. “The hardware needs to change,” the medical device maker said.

_{With information from Bloomberg and the Financial Times}