- Ban on Apple Watch blood oxygen measurements overturned
- A judge has now rejected the appeal against this decision
- Apple fans could soon see the blood oxygen feature return in full
Apple is embroiled in a long-running dispute with medical technology company Masimo over its top smartwatches, with the latter claiming that all top Apple Watches infringe on its patents.
In December 2023, this led to a ban on the importation of several Apple Watch models into the United States, including the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. Yet in a momentous move, that court ruling was recently overturned – and now a judge has refused to hear Masimo’s appeal, marking a major victory for Apple.
Specifically, Masimo had asked the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to reinstate the recently lifted import ban against Apple Watch models. This decision was made in March and ruled that Apple devices did not infringe Masimo’s patents. But an ITC judge has now refused to grant Masimo’s request (via PK Press Club), and as a result, the case has been dismissed.
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What does this mean to you? Quite simply, this means you should soon be able to buy an Apple Watch with its blood oxygen feature enabled. If you want an Apple Watch and this type of medical monitoring is important to you, this will be great news.
While this latest development may seem to end trading between the two companies, Masimo still has other options. It could appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, although the company has not yet indicated whether it will do so. Time will tell how far he wants to go before ending the conflict.
Not finished yet
The court’s initial ruling against Apple meant that the Cupertino company was forced to turn off the blood oxygen feature on all of its top Apple Watches, depriving users of the ability to check their health in this key way.
Apple later designed a workaround that allowed users to measure blood oxygen on their watch and then display that stat on their iPhone, apparently circumventing the ruling. But this was still inferior to the possibility of measuring your blood oxygen level and seeing the result on the same device.
Now that Masimo’s appeal has been rejected, none of this should be necessary. The way has been cleared for Apple to restore its blood oxygen measurement feature to its wearable devices and bring back a tool that was sorely missing from its devices.
Speaking after Masimo’s appeal was rejected, Apple said: “We thank the ITC for its decision, which ensures that we can continue to offer this important health feature to our users. For more than six years, Masimo has waged a relentless legal campaign against Apple, and almost all of its claims have been rejected.”
Yet with Masimo still able to appeal – and with Apple appealing a separate $634 million judgment it lost in November 2025 – we might not have seen the end of this long-running saga.
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