Apple has asked a Federal Court of Federal Appeals. Reuters information.
On Monday, Apple’s lawyers appeared before a panel of three judges in the United States Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit to challenge a 2023 decision by the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) that blocked the imports of Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in 2023 due to the alleged infraction of patents. The ban arose from a complaint filed by Masimo, a medical technology firm based in California, which accused Apple of violating its patents related to pulse oximetry, the measurement of oxygen saturation in the blood through non -invasive sensors.
Apple’s legal advisor argued this week that the ITC ruling was not justified because, at that time Masimo filed its complaint in 2021, the company had not yet brought a competitor product to the market. The first smart watch in Masimo, the W1, which included the monitoring of blood oxygen, was not launched until 2022, two years after Apple introduced the function with the Apple Watch series 6.
Apple argues that the Masimo device was not ready for the market when the company presented its complaint, and that the legal standard should not allow hypothetical products to justify commercial restrictions. The decision had “erroneously” Apple Watch users “of the Blood Oxygen function, said Apple’s lawyer.
Masimo’s lawyer replied that Apple was trying to “rewrite the law” stating that the ITC should only block imports when there is a physical product and marketed at the time of the presentation of the complaint.
The ITC originally ruled in favor of Masimo in October 2023, determining that Apple’s implementation of blood oxygen measurement technology violated several of the Masimo patents. As a result, the Commission issued an exclusion order that blocks imports of Apple Watch models that included disputed functionality. After a brief stay granted by the Federal Circuit in December 2023, the import prohibition was restored in January 2024.
Subsequently, Apple modified its devices for the US market, disabling the blood oxygen sensor in newly sold models 9, series 10 and ultra 2 to resume national sales without violating the order. International models retain complete functionality.
The case remains considered by the Federal Circuit. A decision is expected at the end of this year.
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