# Apple asks the Supreme Court to lift the Apple Watch blood oxygen ban

Source: https://idevice.com/apple-asks-the-supreme-court-to-lift-the-apple-watch-blood-oxygen-ban
Published: 2026-09-16

> Without a win, the original blood oxygen design stays barred from US imports until August 2028. Apple argues Masimo never qualified for ITC protection, since its own watch barely sold. Responses are due October 13.

Apple wants the Supreme Court to end the import ban on its original blood oxygen feature. It filed the petition on September 3, and the case is Apple Inc. v. International Trade Commission, No. 26-316.

The ban took effect on December 26, 2023. It blocks imports of Apple Watch models built with the original version of the feature. Unless something changes, it runs until August 2028, when the two Masimo patents Apple was found to infringe expire. A third Masimo patent was found not infringed.

The Mac Observer reported the petition's details. Apple's case rests on a test most people have never heard of.

The ITC can only block imports to protect a patent holder that has a real "domestic industry" in the US tied to the patented product. The law offers three ways to show that. Masimo qualified under the second, significant employment of labor or capital, on the strength of its research spending. Apple argues research spending belongs under the third route, which demands a tighter link between the money and the patent. If Apple is right, Masimo never cleared the bar.

Apple's second argument is narrower: it says the Federal Circuit upheld the ITC using reasoning the agency itself never gave, which a 1943 Supreme Court decision, SEC v. Chenery Corp., doesn't allow. That's why Apple asks, as a fallback, for a summary reversal without full arguments.

Most of the petition is about Masimo's own watch. Apple's first watch to measure blood oxygen, the [Series 6](https://idevice.com/smart-watches/apple-watch/roadmap), launched in September 2020. Masimo filed its ITC complaint in July 2021. According to Apple, Masimo's W1 watch didn't exist until months after that complaint, and it never sold in the US "in any meaningful quantity."

Apple says the fight forced it to spend "significant time and money to redesign Apple Watch" because of "a complaint from a medical technology company that has never sold a watch in meaningful quantities."

The redesign is what's on sale today, and Apple's spec pages for the Series 12 and Ultra 4 still list a Blood Oxygen app, saying “Measurements are calculated and viewed on iPhone in the Health app.” The petition doesn't say what a win would change for any particular watch.

The ITC and Masimo have until October 13 to respond. Only then do the justices decide whether to take the case at all. If they say no, the Federal Circuit's March 19 ruling stands, and the original design stays barred until 2028.

Masimo isn't the same company that started this. Danaher acquired it while the case was pending. On Apple's side, Mark Fleming of WilmerHale is counsel of record, joined by Paul Clement.

A separate fight from the same ITC investigation is still at the Federal Circuit, as case No. 26-1955, docketed on June 22.