Apple urges US appeals court to revoke ban on the Apple Watch blood oxygen sensor

Apple Watch

Cupertino-based tech giant Apple has once again made another attempt to appeal the trade ban that forced it to remove the blood oxygen sensor from its smartwatches. Earlier this week, Apple appeared before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to overturn a ruling that blocked sales of certain Apple Watches with blood-oxygen sensors in the US, back in late 2023.

Apple Watch trade ban in the US: Key details

According to Reuters, on July 7, Apple appealed to a US appeals court to overturn a trade ruling that forced it to disable the Apple Watch's blood-oxygen feature. The company has argued that the decision has wrongly penalized millions of users. Masimo, the medical tech firm, which filed the complaint, accused Apple of infringing several of its patents related to blood-oxygen sensing.

In 2023, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) agreed with Masimo’s complaint findings that Apple had violated its intellectual property and issued an import ban on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2. Subsequently, Apple removed the blood oxygen sensor from these watches in 2024, so it could restart sales of the devices in the US market.

However, in this week’s appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Apple seeks to fully reverse the ITC’s ruling and wants to restore the blood-oxygen capability on US-sold Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches, to continue offering the feature to its customers. Apple maintains that Masimo's devices were not market-ready when the company filed its complaint, and that the legal standard should not force the company to follow such trade restrictions.