As per the recent ruling by the United States Supreme Court, the request made by Apple to overturn the decision to halt the sales of Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the United States has been denied. The International Trade Commission (ITC) issued this order due to a patent infringement issue with Masimo’s blood oxygen measuring system. This ruling came into effect on January 18th, 17:00 Eastern Standard Time.
In response, Apple stated that the appeals process is still ongoing and they believe the court will overturn the ITC’s decision. However, during this litigation process, Apple will take steps to minimize the impact on customers who wish to purchase an Apple Watch. One of these measures is to offer the sales of Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 models without the blood oxygen measuring feature, but this will only apply within the United States. It is important to note that this will not affect the existing Apple Watches with the blood oxygen measurement feature that have already been sold.
Users of the affected Apple Watch models will still find the Blood Oxygen app on their devices; however, an error message will be displayed when attempting to use the app. The message will include a link to Apple’s support page for further details.
Apple will commence the sales of the aforementioned models without the blood oxygen measuring feature starting from 6:00 AM on January 18th according to Pacific Standard Time.
TLDR: The US Supreme Court has denied Apple’s request to reverse the sales halt on Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 due to patent infringement. Apple will continue the appeals process but will sell these models without the blood oxygen measuring feature within the US. Existing Apple Watches with this feature will not be affected. The sales without this feature will commence from 6:00 AM on January 18th according to Pacific Standard Time.
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