On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit announced it would uphold the ban instituted by the International Trade Commission’s exclusion order on sales and imports of Apple’s Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 in the U.S.
The tech giant, however, has found a way to keep the Watches on shelves and workaround the ban by tweaking their Watches not to include the disputed blood oxygen feature
The back-and-forth on the availability of Apple’s watches is due to an ongoing dispute between Apple and medtech company Masimo, which sued Apple in 2020 for allegedly poaching its employees and stealing trade secrets related to technology that uses light to measure blood oxygen levels in the Apple Watch.
In October, Apple was banned from selling and importing its smartwatches after the ITC issued an order to protect Masimo.
President Biden had 60 days to review and overturn the ITC’s order that stopped Apple from selling its watches but failed to veto the ban by the deadline.
Apple subsequently filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and on Jan. 15, the court reinstated the ban.
Since Apple managed to suspend its blood oxygen feature, however, Watches are again available for sale, but without the blood oxygen technology.