Apple is allowed to sell the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 temporarily in the U.S. again as the company looks to extend the time before it must appeal the ban.
A new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims Apple requested a delay, and now the court has until January 10th to grant it. The window of time until the court decides is why Apple is allowed to start selling smartwatches again. Gurman says the Apple Watch is now available in U.S. Apple Stores and that it will return to the online store by 12pm PT/3pm ET. The Series 9 and Ultra 2 were pulled from the online U.S. Apple Store on December 21st and store shelves on December 24th. Third-party retailers can still sell the smartwatches but can’t receive additional stock.
To avoid the ongoing patent dispute, Apple submitted a software update to the U.S. Customs agency that it believes will fix the overlapping tech, but those findings aren’t set to go live until January 12th.
Medical tech company Masimo has leveraged patent claims against Apple since 2020 when the tech giant first added a heart rate sensor to the Apple Watch Series 6. The U.S. International Trade Commission claims Apple infringed on two heart rate and blood oxygen sensing patents, leading to a ban of the latest Apple Watch models that violate these patents.
The ban hasn’t extended outside of the U.S. yet, so Canadians can still purchase the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. However, if the company is found at fault for patent theft, it could have broader worldwide repercussions.
Source: Bloomberg
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
