The US International Trade Commission closed its case against Apple on April 17, 2026, declining to review a March ruling that found Apple's redesigned blood oxygen feature on Apple Watch doesn't infringe Masimo's patents. Apple can continue selling Apple Watch models with the feature enabled in the US without risk of an import ban.
This resolves the ITC front of a legal dispute that started in 2020, when Masimo, a California-based medical technology company, accused Apple of poaching its engineers and using their knowledge to build the blood oxygen sensor in the Apple Watch Series 6. The ITC sided with Masimo in 2023 and imposed an import ban on Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2. Apple responded by disabling the feature on US watches while developing a workaround.
Apple's redesign, cleared by US Customs in August 2025, shifts blood oxygen processing from the watch to a paired iPhone. Raw data is collected by the watch's sensors, but the calculation and result display happen on the iPhone's Health app rather than on the watch face itself. The ITC judge ruled in March 2026 that this change puts Apple outside the scope of Masimo's patents. The full commission declined to review that ruling, closing the case.
Apple can now sell watches with the redesigned feature freely. Masimo has until June 16, 2026, to appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, so the case isn't permanently closed. A separate federal jury trial in November 2025 already ordered Apple to pay Masimo $634 million in damages on a different patent, which Apple is appealing.
Six years of litigation, hundreds of millions of dollars in damages still contested, and Apple Watch owners in the US still have to check their iPhone to see their blood oxygen reading.