Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2 return to American Apple Stores

The new Modular Ultra watch face takes advantage of the large display, using the outermost edge to present real-time data like altitude, depth, or the passing seconds.
Apple has resumed sales of its flagship smartwatches, after a U.S. appeals court on Wednesday paused a government commission’s import ban on the devices imposed in a patent dispute over its medical monitoring technology.
Reuters:
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The tech giant had filed an emergency request asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to halt an order from the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), which had ruled that Apple had infringed the patents of Irvine, California-based Masimo.
A final decision could cost either company millions of dollars and potentially force a settlement or some kind of technological workaround by Apple, analysts said. Ultimately, though, any financial hit for Apple is likely to be dwarfed by the bad publicity the lawsuit is generating, they said.
“We are thrilled to return the full Apple Watch lineup to customers in time for the new year,” Apple said in a statement. “Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, including the blood oxygen feature, will become available for purchase again in the United States at Apple Stores starting [Wednesday] and from apple.com [Thursday] by 12 pm PT.”
In a four-paragraph ruling on Wednesday, the appeals court said it would halt the ban while it considers Apple’s motion for a longer-term pause during the appeals process. The court gave the ITC until Jan. 10 to respond to Apple’s request…
Apple has said it is working on a range of legal and technical options.
On Tuesday, the company told the court that U.S. Customs and Border Protection is considering whether redesigned versions of its watches infringe Masimo’s patents and can be imported. The customs agency has set a target date of Jan. 12 for its decision, Apple said.

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MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last week, “Apple does, of course, need to rectify a situation that competent management would already have addressed well prior to any sales ban, as soon as possible in 2024.”
If the ITC ruling is not vetoed, and a hardware change is required, expect Apple to pay up and settle this imbroglio with an offer that Masimo cannot refuse. – MacDailyNews, December 19, 2023
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