The Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 – the two models equipped with blood oxygen features – face another sales ban in the United States, effective as of 5:00 pm ET on January 18, 2024.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has rejected Apple's plea to temporarily halt the ban during its appeal against the International Trade Commission's (ITC) decision that the devices violate two patents owned by medical device company Masimo (NASDAQ:MASI).
Shares of Massimo were up over 1.5% at the time of writing Wednesday.
Despite the ban, Apple is expected to continue selling the affected models, namely the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Apple Watch Series 9. To comply with the ruling, Apple will likely release a firmware update to disable the blood oxygen feature on newly sold Apple Watches within the US.
This modification will exclusively apply to devices sold after the specified effective date.
The decision comes days after the US appeals court affirmed two prior rulings by a patent tribunal that sided with Masimo in its intellectual property dispute with Apple over blood oxygen sensors in newer Apple Watch models.