Apple briefly paused sales of its Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the U.S. in mid-December, due to a patent dispute with medical tech company Masimo that was related to the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen measuring capabilities.
Apple then appealed the decision in court, resulting in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit putting an interim stay in place while the court reviewed Apple’s request for a full stay for the length of the appeal. Apple was then allowed to temporarily resume sales of the affected Apple Watch models.
Today, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) formally opposed Apple’s motion for the sales ban to be paused for the length of its appeal, according to a document filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
“Apple presents a weak and unconvincing case to invoke the extraordinary remedy of a stay pending appeal,” ITC lawyers said in their response. “Its arguments amount to little more than an indisputably adjudicated infringer requesting permission to continue infringing the asserted patents.”
The court is still accepting “replies in support” until January 15, which means both Apple Watch models should remain on sale at least until Monday.
Masimo in 2020 claimed Apple stole Masimo employees and stole trade secrets while the Cupertino firm was developing the Apple Watch. Masimo was seeking over $1.8 billion in damages and co-ownership of five Apple pulse oximetry patents that Masimo said used its technology.
Apple did indeed hire employees away from Masimo, hiring Chief Medical Officer Michael O’Reilly in July 2013, and then in 2014, it hired Cercacor Chief Technical Officer Marcelo Lamego (Cercacor is a Masimo spinoff company). Masimo claims that the two former employees shared Masimo’s intellectual property when they developed the Apple Watch, which Apple denies.
Apple engineers are reported to be “racing” to make changes to algorithms on the Apple Watch that measure a user’s blood oxygen level — a feature that Masimo Corp. has argued infringes its patents.
The ITC’s full response can be found in this PDF.