A U.S. trade tribunal judge has issued a preliminary determination that Apple’s redesigned Apple Watch models do not infringe patents owned by medical monitoring company Masimo, denying Masimo’s bid to impose a renewed import ban on Apple’s smartwatches.
The decision, made public on Thursday, concluded that the changes Apple implemented to its watches were sufficient to avoid violation of Masimo patents covering blood-oxygen reading technology. That ruling aligns with Apple’s position that the updated hardware and software adjustments circumvent the grounds for an import block.
The case now moves to the U.S. International Trade Commission's full five-member commission, which will decide whether to uphold the judge’s preliminary finding. Separately on Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the tribunal’s 2023 ruling that had previously blocked importation of Apple Watches found to infringe Masimo patents. Apple, however, has resumed importing versions of the watches that it altered following the earlier ITC order.
Apple issued a statement saying it was pleased with the ITC judge’s decision and that it would evaluate "all avenues for further review" of the Federal Circuit’s ruling. In its statement Apple added that over the course of six years Masimo has brought dozens of claims against the company, and that nearly all of those claims have been rejected. A Masimo spokesperson declined to comment on the recent development.
The litigation is part of a broader, contentious dispute between Apple and Masimo, an Irvine, California-based maker of medical monitoring technology. Masimo has accused Apple of hiring away its employees and appropriating innovations related to pulse-oximetry, the methods used to estimate oxygen levels in the blood.
In December 2023 the ITC had blocked imports of Apple’s Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches after finding those models infringed Masimo patents. To avoid the block, Apple removed blood-oxygen reading functionality from the affected watch units. Last August Apple reintroduced an updated version of the blood-oxygen feature after receiving approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and has since resumed imports of the revised watches.
Masimo has challenged Customs’ approval in a separate lawsuit. A notable technical distinction in the updated product is that the revised watches do not display blood-oxygen measurement data on the watch face itself; instead, the health data appear on connected Apple devices such as the iPhone. Apple’s earlier implementation had shown that information directly on the watch.
Further complicating the corporate backdrop, Danaher agreed in February to acquire Masimo in a transaction valued at $9.9 billion. Masimo has also pursued parallel litigation in federal court in California against Apple, alleging patent infringement and trade-secret theft. In one of those court cases in November, Masimo was awarded $634 million in a patent trial; Apple has said it will appeal that verdict.
Industry participants and market observers will now watch the ITC full commission’s next moves and the status of appeals, as the dispute involves patent enforcement, customs decisions, and overlapping federal litigation concerning wearable health features.
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