Apple is having a major problem due to its Apple Watch. Due to a patent infringement, Apple Watches could be taken off the market the day after Christmas.
The International Trade Commission has ruled that parts of the Apple Watch were stolen from Maximo Corp., a medical technology firm. The NY Times says:
Apple Inc. sells a lot of smart watches during the holidays, but this year its sales of most Apple Watch models may well drop 100 percent — to literally zero — the day after Christmas.
That’s because of a ruling Thursday by the International Trade Commission that most Apple Watches contain parts that infringe on patents held by Masimo Corp., a producer of medical technology, and its sister company, Cercacor Laboratories Inc., both of Irvine, Calif. An import ban and a cease-and-desist order on sales both take effect on Dec. 26 — unless President Biden reverses the decision by Dec. 25, which appears unlikely. (Presidents rarelyoverrule the independent, nonpartisan agency, which was founded in 1916 as the U.S. Tariff Commission.)
The blood-oxygen feature has been critical to the Apple Watches success as a personal and paramedical device. The Hill reports:
The medical technology company Masimo originally sued Apple in federal court in 2020, accusing the iPhone-maker of poaching employees and stealing trade secrets related to its light-based technology for measuring blood-oxygen levels.
Masimo also sued Apple for patent infringement at the ITC in 2021 over the Apple Watch Series 6, which was the first to feature blood-oxygen monitoring capabilities.
Apple could escape the ruling if it agreed to pay Masimo, though that would probably cost a large sum of money. Developing its own technology to replace those parts will be critical for Apple. Otherwise, it could be left with no more watches to sell.
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