Apple has put two of its higher-end watches back on the market following the lifting of a ban by the American government on its use of blood-oxygen measuring technology.
In October, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) blocked Apple from selling any electronic devices with a specific blood-oxygen measurement capability. This was spurred by an ongoing feud with medical tech company Masimo over its claim to the technology’s intellectual property rights.
The units affected by this, the Series 9 and Ultra 2 Apple Watches, were pulled from consumer markets just days before Christmas to comply with the ruling. Apple then appealed the ruling, and it was widely assumed that the court would approve it.
Following this, Apple promised the watches would return to its online store by noon Pacific Time (PT) on Thursday. As of 4:00 PM Eastern Time (1:00 PM PT), the devices were available for purchase on Apple.com.
As it plans Apple Watch features like blood-pressure and glucose monitoring, Apple confronts technical and legal hurdles that could mean customers will have to wait https://t.co/vKbenmfa56 https://t.co/vKbenmfa56
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 28, 2023
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However, experts on the issue say the ban lift is temporary and Apple will have many more problems down the road as it attempts to break into the medical device industry. Its market strategy is to offer devices with capabilities to track vitals that are critical for the elderly to align with the aging population. Proponents believe that Apple Watches and similar gadgets will be able to track blood pressure and blood sugar without inconvenient doctor visits and clumsy medical equipment.
In 2022, the ITC ruled that Apple infringed on the ownership rights of AliveCor over EKG technology. Apple’s saving grace in that case was the intervention by another federal agency which contests that AliveCor’s technology is inherently unpatentable. The Biden White House declined to intercede on Apple’s behalf.
Technology analyst Dan Ives predicts that Apple will need to start acquiring medical tech startups or form a series of licensing deals to overcome these patent hurdles. Another consumer tech analyst, Ben Bajarin at Creative Strategies, says that Apple has met its match with companies like Masimo, who have carefully collected a bundle of patents over the years for precisely this reason. As Apple pursues new features with each new generation of Watches, it will likely come up against more legal disputes. “As Apple gets further into the water,” said Bajarin, “there will be more of these companies it will have to navigate around.”
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