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Apple lost its main appeal over Masimo’s Apple Watch blood-oxygen patents, but that did not create a new import ban covering every later Apple Watch. On March 19, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the original International Trade Commission (ITC) ruling against Apple. In a separate proceeding on April 17, 2026, the ITC found that Apple’s second redesign did not violate the exclusion order.
Those decisions concern different proceedings and different Apple Watch designs. The cleanest summary is: Apple lost the appeal involving the original accused watches, while a later redesign cleared a separate ITC enforcement review.
What the July 2025 court hearing was about
The headline originated with oral arguments held on July 7, 2025, before the Federal Circuit. Apple was appealing the ITC’s final determination that certain Apple Watches infringed Masimo and Cercacor Laboratories patents covering light-based pulse oximetry and physiological measurement.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsAt the hearing, Apple argued that Masimo’s domestic-industry case was inadequate because the company had prototypes rather than a finished, commercially launched competing smartwatch when it filed its ITC complaint. Masimo responded that Section 337 of the Tariff Act does not require a company to have already launched a consumer smartwatch to establish the required domestic industry. Its position relied on its patented technology and related U.S. investments.
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The court had not ruled when the original hearing report was published. It has now issued its decision.
Read the July 2025 oral-argument coverage.
How the Apple Watch import dispute began
Apple released the accused Apple Watch version with a Blood Oxygen sensor on September 15, 2020. Masimo filed its ITC complaint against Apple on June 30, 2021, alleging infringement of patents covering wearable devices that use optical emitters and photodetectors to measure physiological parameters.
The Federal Circuit appeal concerned U.S. Patent Nos. 10,912,502 and 10,945,648, referred to in the court’s opinion as the Poeze Patents. The dispute was about specific patent claims and infringement findings—not a determination that Masimo invented every aspect of Apple’s blood-oxygen technology.
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Why the ITC can restrict imports
The ITC is an administrative agency, not a conventional court. Under Section 337, it can issue exclusion orders when imported articles infringe enforceable U.S. patents and the statutory domestic-industry requirement is satisfied.
An ITC exclusion order differs from a district-court damages judgment. It primarily operates against the importation of covered goods into the United States, with enforcement involving U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Federal Circuit reviews an ITC final determination under the standards of the Administrative Procedure Act.
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- KNOW YOUR SLEEP SCORE—With advanced sleep tracking, Series 11 gives you a daily sleep score. It’s an easy way to help measure and understand the quality of your sleep, so you can make it more restorative.
- GET HYPERTENSION NOTIFICATIONS—Did you know that Series 11 can spot signs of chronic high blood pressure? By analyzing how your blood vessels respond to beats of the heart, it can notify you of possible hypertension.*
- SAFETY FEATURES—A smartwatch that puts your safety first. Series 11 can detect a hard fall or severe car crash, automatically help connect you with emergency services, and notify your emergency contacts.* Check In can automatically notify a loved one when you’ve arrived at your destination.
- A POWERFUL FITNESS TRACKER—With advanced metrics and motivating features like Pacer, Heart Rate Zones, training load, and Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence from your nearby iPhone*—Series 11 is made to help everyone stay active, from runners and hikers to strength-training enthusiasts.
On January 10, 2023, an ITC administrative law judge found that Apple violated Section 337. The Commission issued its final determination on October 26, 2023, imposing a limited exclusion order covering certain infringing Apple wearable devices and a cease-and-desist order directed at relevant Apple activities in the United States. The orders were subject to a 60-day presidential-review period.
What happened to Apple Watch sales in the United States
As the original order approached effectiveness, Apple briefly stopped selling affected Apple Watch models in the United States. The Federal Circuit temporarily paused enforcement while Apple pursued its appeal.
When the order was later allowed to take effect in January 2024, Apple sold affected U.S. models with the blood-oxygen functionality disabled. Customs issued a January 12, 2024 ruling allowing importation of certain Apple Watches in that configuration.
That history is why “Apple Watch import ban” can be misleading when used without qualifications. The order applied to covered imported products, not automatically to every Apple Watch model worldwide, and importability could depend on whether a particular design or feature configuration fell within the order.
Apple lost the original Federal Circuit appeal
On March 19, 2026, in Apple Inc. v. ITC, No. 24-1285, the Federal Circuit affirmed the ITC’s determination.
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The court found no error in the Commission’s conclusions regarding:
- Masimo’s statutory domestic-industry showing;
- the validity of the patents at issue; and
- Apple’s infringement of the relevant patent claims.
That means Apple did not win its central appellate argument that Masimo’s prototype-based domestic-industry evidence was insufficient. The decision affirmed the original ITC outcome; it did not lift or overturn the original finding.
Read the Federal Circuit opinion.
Why the later redesign produced a different result
While the Federal Circuit appeal was pending, Apple pursued a second redesign. Customs had rejected that redesign on January 7, 2025, but later issued an August 1, 2025 ruling allowing its importation.
The ITC opened a combined enforcement and modification proceeding on November 14, 2025 to examine whether the second redesign violated the existing exclusion order. An administrative law judge issued an initial enforcement determination on March 18, 2026.
On April 17, 2026, the ITC issued its final determination: Apple’s second redesigned Apple Watch did not violate the exclusion order.
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- GET SMARTER HEALTH INSIGHTS—Apple Watch SE 3 is an advanced health tracker that helps you better understand your body. The smartwatch sends alerts for an irregular heart rhythm, or an unusually high or low heart rate.* You can view your overnight health tracking metrics with the Vitals app,* track your sleep score, and get sleep apnea notifications.*
- A GREAT FITNESS TRACKER—SE 3 can track your workouts in a healthy number of ways—from running and strength training to simply achieving your 10K steps a day. With real-time metrics and Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence from your nearby iPhone,* you’ll hit your goals like never before.
- KEEP HELP CLOSE AT HAND—SE 3 is a smartwatch that can detect a hard fall or severe car crash and automatically help connect you to emergency services and notify your emergency contacts.* Check In can automatically notify a loved one when you’ve arrived at your destination.
- WOMEN’S HEALTH INSIGHTS—SE 3 has advanced sensors that track your wrist temperature while you sleep. With this smartwatch, you can log your periods and symptoms, get period predictions, and get notified of cycle deviations.*
- GREAT BATTERY LIFE AND FASTER CHARGING—Enjoy a smartwatch with all-day, 18-hour battery life* from sunup to sundown. Then charge up to twice as fast as SE 2* and get up to 8 hours of battery in just 15 minutes.*
This was not a reversal of the Federal Circuit’s March decision. The Federal Circuit addressed the original ITC determination and the original accused designs. The later ITC proceeding addressed whether a different redesign fell within the scope of the existing order.
| Proceeding | Date | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Circuit appeal of the original ITC case | March 19, 2026 | Apple lost; the original ITC determination was affirmed |
| ITC enforcement/modification proceeding for Apple’s second redesign | April 17, 2026 | The second redesign was found not to violate the exclusion order |
Masimo’s filing identified June 16, 2026 as the deadline for appealing the second-redesign determination.
See Masimo’s SEC filing for the procedural chronology.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What this means for Apple Watch buyers
The legal outcome is U.S.-specific and model-specific. A watch may be importable while a disputed feature is disabled, or a redesigned model may be treated differently from the original accused design.
Apple’s current U.S. Watch page lists the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch SE 3, and Apple Watch Ultra 3. However, Blood Oxygen availability should not be inferred solely from the product family name. It can depend on the exact U.S. model, production version, software configuration, and sales date.
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- A FULL-FEATURED HEALTH TRACKER—Apple Watch Series 11 gives you invaluable insights about your body, right from your wrist. Take an ECG anytime* and get alerts for a high and low heart rate or an irregular rhythm*—so you can stay closer to your heart. You can also view your overnight health tracking metrics with the Vitals app* and be notified of possible sleep apnea.*
- KNOW YOUR SLEEP SCORE—With advanced sleep tracking, Series 11 gives you a daily sleep score. It’s an easy way to help measure and understand the quality of your sleep, so you can make it more restorative.
- GET HYPERTENSION NOTIFICATIONS—Did you know that Series 11 can spot signs of chronic high blood pressure? By analyzing how your blood vessels respond to beats of the heart, it can notify you of possible hypertension.*
- SAFETY FEATURES—A smartwatch that puts your safety first. Series 11 can detect a hard fall or severe car crash, automatically help connect you with emergency services, and notify your emergency contacts.* Check In can automatically notify a loved one when you’ve arrived at your destination.
- A POWERFUL FITNESS TRACKER—With advanced metrics and motivating features like Pacer, Heart Rate Zones, training load, and Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence from your nearby iPhone*—Series 11 is made to help everyone stay active, from runners and hikers to strength-training enthusiasts.
Before buying, check the exact model and Apple’s current health-feature documentation:
Apple Watch blood-oxygen readings are consumer-device measurements and should not be treated as a substitute for professional medical equipment. The litigation concerns patent rights and importation, not a finding that any smartwatch is clinically equivalent to a medical pulse oximeter.
The broader Apple–Masimo fight is separate
The ITC import proceeding is only one part of the companies’ wider litigation.
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Masimo’s 2026 SEC filing describes district-court litigation in which Apple sued Masimo over the Masimo W1 watch and related products. A 2024 jury found that current Masimo products did not infringe Apple’s asserted patents, while discontinued versions of the watch and charger were found to infringe design patents. The jury awarded Apple $250 on those claims. Masimo’s patent, false-advertising, and antitrust counterclaims remained for later proceedings.
The same filing describes a separate trade-secrets and patent-ownership case in which a jury returned a $634 million verdict against Apple in November 2025. That is a different lawsuit and should not be confused with either the Apple Watch import appeal or the second-redesign ITC proceeding.
Quick Recap
What changed—and what did not
- Changed: The Federal Circuit resolved Apple’s appeal of the original ITC ruling on March 19, 2026, and affirmed the Commission.
- Changed: The ITC separately found on April 17, 2026 that Apple’s second redesign did not violate the exclusion order.
- Did not change: The original ITC infringement determination was not erased.
- Did not change: The case does not establish a universal ban on every Apple Watch model or a global removal of Blood Oxygen.
- Still separate: The companies’ district-court, trade-secret, patent-ownership, and other disputes.
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