Apple Yanks Disputed Health Feature From Watches

Blood-oxygen sensor won't work on new Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 18, 2024 9:03 AM CST
Apple Yanks Disputed Health Feature From Watches
A redesign of two Apple Watch models, the Series 9 and Ultra 2, that excludes the blood oxygen sensor has been approved by US Customs and Border Protection.   (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

Apple has complied with the latest ruling in a patent dispute over a health feature on its two most advanced Apple Watches—but instead of stopping sales of the Series 9 and Ultra 2, it has turned the feature off. In what the AP describes as a sign of Apple's confidence in winning an appeal of a US International Trade Commission ruling, models of the watches sold in the US from Thursday onward will still have the Blood Oxygen icon, but users who tap it will be told it is not available. The feature will still work on Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches sold before Thursday.

Last month, a federal appeals court allowed Apple to resume selling the watches but the court refused to extend the temporary stay on Wednesday. In anticipation of the ruling, Apple had already received approval to sell the watches without the disputed feature, the New York Times reports. The ITC ruled in October that Apple had infringed on patents held by medical tech company Masimo, but the appeals process is expected to take at least a year. Masimo accuses Apple of stealing its technology and poaching key employees.

Masimo founder and CEO Joe Kiani said the ruling blocking Apple from selling watches with the blood-oxygen feature shows that "even the largest and most powerful companies must respect the intellectual rights of American inventors and must deal with the consequences when they are caught infringing others' patents," the BBC reports. In court filings, Apple argued that enforcing the patent order while the appeal is underway would harm "a pioneering product made by a quintessentially American company." (More Apple Watch stories.)

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