Apple asks US appeals court to reverse
Apple Watch import ban
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[April 06, 2024]
By Blake Brittain
(Reuters) - Apple urged a U.S. appeals court on Friday to overturn a
U.S. trade tribunal's decision to ban imports of some Apple Watches in a
patent dispute with medical-monitoring technology company Masimo. |
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An Apple smartwatch is displayed as customers visit the Apple store in
New York, U.S., December 26, 2023. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo |
Apple told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
that the U.S. International Trade Commission's decision was
based on a "series of substantively defective patent rulings,"
and that Masimo failed to show it had invested in making
competing U.S. products that would justify the order.
Representatives for Apple and Masimo did not immediately respond
to requests for comment on the filing.
Irvine, California-based Masimo has accused Apple of hiring away
its employees and stealing its pulse oximetry technology after
discussing a potential collaboration. Apple first introduced
pulse oximetry to its Series 6 Apple Watches in 2020.
Masimo convinced the ITC on Dec. 26 to block imports of Apple's
latest-edition Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches after finding
that their technology for reading blood-oxygen levels infringed
Masimo's patents.
Apple temporarily resumed sales of the watches the next day
after persuading the Federal Circuit to pause the ban. The
appeals court reinstated the ban in January, leading Apple to
remove pulse oximetry capabilities from watches sold during the
appeal, which Apple has said could last at least a year.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection separately determined in
January that redesigned versions of the watches did not violate
Masimo's rights and would not be not subject to the ban. Masimo
said in a court filing that the watches "definitively do not
contain pulse oximetry functionality."
Apple told the Federal Circuit on Friday that the ban could not
stand because a Masimo wearable covered by the patents was
"purely hypothetical" when it filed its ITC complaint in 2021.
The tech giant also argued that Masimo's patents were invalid
and that its watches did not infringe them.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington, Editing by Alexia
Garamfalvi and Josie Kao)
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