What Happened?

If you’ve bought an Apple Watch in the U.S. lately, its blood oxygen readings show up on your iPhone instead of your wrist, and a patent fight now at the Supreme Court is the reason. Apple asked the justices on Sept. 3 to overturn a ruling that upheld a U.S. International Trade Commission ban on importing watches that measure blood oxygen on the device itself, a design that infringes two patents held by medical device maker Masimo, according to Apple’s petition. ​

Apple is also paying lobbyists to work on patent and trade issues. Marla Grossman LLC reported $110,000 for the third quarter from the law firm WilmerHale on Apple’s behalf, covering intellectual property, trade and public health, the same as the prior quarter and a year earlier, according to a Legis1 review of the filing.

Why Does It Matter To Me?

The ban took effect Dec. 26, 2023, and lasts until Masimo’s patents expire in August 2028. Apple kept selling watches by moving the blood oxygen calculation to a paired iPhone, a redesign the commission cleared in April.

The bigger question is how easily any company can block imports. The commission can only ban a product if the patent holder has a “domestic industry” in the U.S. It counted Masimo’s spending on earlier prototypes that didn’t use the patented technology, and a federal appeals court agreed on March 19 that such spending can count if it is “specifically tailored” to the final product, according to a Mintz analysis of the ruling. Apple’s backers argue that reading lets companies that don’t make products here keep others’ goods out of the country.

Both Sides, Now

Four trade groups, including the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, filed a brief Oct. 13 urging the court to take the case and “restore the boundaries of ITC’s jurisdiction as set by Congress.” In CCIA’s statement on the brief, President Matt Schruers said “patent law serves to reward innovators, not opportunists.”

Masimo has won on other fronts. Beyond the appeals court ruling, a California jury in November 2025 found Apple infringed a Masimo pulse oximetry patent and awarded $634 million. Apple says Masimo has “waged a relentless legal campaign” against it for more than six years, while Masimo declined to comment on the April decision.

What Happens Next?

Masimo and the commission have until Thursday, Nov. 12, to respond to Apple’s petition, after the court extended the original Oct. 13 deadline, according to the Fed Circuit Blog’s case tracker. The justices will then decide whether to hear the case.

With the ban already set to end when the patents expire, the court’s answer could shape future import fights more than this one.

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