By Blake Brittain
WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) – A U.S. trade tribunal ruled for Apple on Friday against a bid from medtech company Masimo to reinstate an import ban on the tech giant’s Apple Watches.
The U.S. International Trade Commission closed Masimo’s case after declining to review an ITC judge’s preliminary March ruling that Apple’s redesigned watches do not infringe Masimo patents related to blood-oxygen reading technology.
Danaher-owned Masimo can appeal the decision to the Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. A Masimo spokesperson declined to comment on the ruling.
“We thank the ITC for its decision, which ensures we can continue to offer this important health feature to our users,” Apple said. “For more than six years, Masimo has waged a relentless legal campaign against Apple, and nearly all of its claims have been rejected.”
The two companies have been embroiled in a long-running legal dispute after Masimo accused Apple of hiring away its employees to steal pulse-oximetry technology for determining blood oxygen levels.
The ITC blocked imports of Apple’s Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches in December 2023 after finding that they infringed Masimo’s patents. Apple removed blood-oxygen reading technology from its watches to avoid the ban, but reintroduced an updated version of the technology last August with approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Updated watches display health data from the blood-oxygen reader on associated Apple devices like the iPhone and not the watch itself. Apple’s original version displayed the data on its watches as well.
Masimo has separately sued Customs over its approval of the redesigned watches.
Masimo has also sued Apple in California federal court for patent infringement and trade-secret theft, and won $634 million in a November patent trial. Apple has said it would appeal the verdict.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in WashingtonEditing by Shri Navaratnam)