Apple said on Monday it would suspend sales of its flagship smartwatches online starting Thursday and in retail stores on Christmas Eve.
Two months ago, Apple lost a patent case over the technology its smartwatches use to detect people's pulse. The company was ordered to stop selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 after Christmas, potentially triggering a streak of watch sales in the final week of holiday shopping.
Apple's move follows an International Trade Commission ruling in October that found several Apple Watches infringe patents held by Masimo, a medical technology company in Irvine, California.
In court, Masimo detailed how Apple poached its top executives and more than a dozen employees before later releasing a watch with pulse oximeter capabilities, which It measures the percentage of oxygen carried by red blood cells. from the lungs to the body, which were patented by Masimo.
To avoid an outright ban on sales, Apple had two months to reach an agreement with Masimo to license its technology, or it could appeal to the Biden administration to overturn the ruling.
But Joe Kiani, Masimo's chief executive, said in an interview that Apple had not entered into licensing negotiations. Instead, he said Apple had appealed to President Biden to veto the ITC ruling, which Kiani knows because the administration contacted Masimo about Apple's request.
“They're trying to make the agency look like it's helping patent trolls,” Kiani said of the ITC.
Apple did not respond to requests for comment on Kiani's comments. In a statement, the company said: “Apple does not agree with the order and is pursuing a variety of legal and technical options to ensure that Apple Watch is available to customers.”
The Biden administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kiani said he was willing to sell Apple a chip that Masimo had designed to provide pulse oximeter readings in the Apple Watch. The chip is currently in a masimo medical watch, called W1, which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The device uses algorithms to process red and near-infrared light to determine how oxygen-rich the blood is in the arteries.
“If they don't want to use our chip, I will work with them to make their product good,” Kiani said. “Once it's good enough, I'll be happy to give them a license.”
Apple introduced its first watch with pulse oximetry in 2020. It has included the technology, which it calls “blood oxygen,” in subsequent models. But unlike Masimo's W1 device, the FDA has not cleared its watches for use as a medical device for pulse oximetry.
The Apple Watch accounts for nearly $20 billion of the company's $383.29 billion in annual sales, according to Bernstein Research, a financial research firm. Apple is the world's largest smartwatch seller, accounting for about a third of all smartwatch sales, according to Counterpoint researcha technology research company.
Apple has managed to persuade presidents in the past to veto ITC rulings. In 2013, the Obama administration overthrew a ban on the sale of some iPhones and iPads, after the court determined that Apple had infringed a patent owned by Samsung.
