The U.S. Worldwide Commerce Fee, or ITC, had banned all imports and gross sales of sure Apple smartwatch fashions in October after ruling the fashions infringed on a patent held by medical firm Masimo. The ban was slated to enter impact on Tuesday. It was briefly paused by an appeals court docket on Wednesday. The court docket agreed to pause the ban whereas weighing Apple’s movement for an extended injunction. The court docket additionally gave the ITC about two weeks to resolve whether or not re-designed variations of the smartwatches could also be bought.
What sort of patent did Apple allegedly violate? Masimo alleges that Apple stole its patented pulse oximetry know-how utilized in sure smartwatches to learn oxygen ranges in blood. The characteristic debuted within the 2020 Sequence 6 smartwatch mannequin and is featured in different smartwatches, like Sequence 9 and Extremely 2. Masimo additionally has accused Apple of hiring away its workers to implement the brand new know-how. Apple has additionally filed a retaliatory lawsuit in opposition to Masimo.
Dig deeper: Learn John Dawson’s report in WORLD Journal on Apple by the numbers.