A federal appeals court has allowed Apple to continue importing the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 models. The decision arrived a day after Apple appealed a ruling by the International Trade Commission (ITC) which prohibited imports of both aforementioned smartwatch models due to a patent conflict with medical device maker Masimo.
In case you missed it, Apple was ordered to stop selling its Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches from its online and physical stores before the ban came into effect on December 26th. The more affordable Watch SE model, on the other hand, wasn’t affected as it lacked a blood oxygen saturation sensor, which allegedly breaches a patent filed by Masimo.
According to a statement by a company spokesperson to The Verge, the Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches will be sold again via some Apple stores in the US starting today, with more by Saturday. Meanwhile, online sales for both models in the country will be available again by tomorrow, they added.
“We are thrilled to return the full Apple Watch lineup to customers in time for the new year,” the spokesperson said. “Apple’s teams have worked tirelessly over many years to develop technology that empowers users with industry-leading health, wellness and safety features and we are pleased the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has stayed the exclusion order while it considers our request to stay the order pending our full appeal.”
However, it is also revealed that the court’s decision is not final. It has asked the ITC to reply to Apple’s request for a longer-term halt on the ban while the appeal is ongoing, Reuters said. For now, the company could keep selling its watches for now, while it waited to hear back on whether proposed changes to its watches would avoid the patent issues. US Customs and Border Protection will decide on the changes on January 12th. If not, the court might pause the ban until it can decide on the patent conflict, which could make the ban last for months more.
In its appeal, Apple said that the company will “face irreparable damage” if the ban continued. It is currently looking into redesigning the blood oxygen sensors in its smartwatch after both the ITC and Masimo said that a software update, which the company is rushing to release, would not be enough to settle the patent dispute.
