Apple has sought to slow or even halt the ban on its watches containing pulse oximetry after it was found to have infringed two Masimo patents, but now is forced to remove the feature completely.

US tech giant Apple is set to pull a feature from its brand of smartwatches that enables measurement of a user’s blood oxygen levels, following an international patent dispute.

The Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 were previously banned in the United States after the International Trade Commission (ITC) sided with California-based health-tech firm, Masimo who brought a claim of patent infringement against Apple claiming that they had infringed on two key Masimo patents.

Previously, Apple was brought before the Commission by medical technology firm, Masimo, alleging that Apple had infringed on their US patents for light-based technology to measure blood oxygen saturation. Namely, the company had infringed on patents 10,912,502 and 10,945,648, both of which are claimed by Masimo. The ruling means that Apple could not sell or import watches with the offending feature in the United States.

Now, a letter filed to the US Court of Appeals by Masimo confirms that Apple has redesigned its iWatch features to fall outside of the scope of Masimo’s patents. Namely, removing the pulse oximetry features.

Written by intellectual property legal firm, Knobbe Martens, on behalf of Masimo, the letter reads: “On Friday, January 12, the Exclusion Order Enforcement Branch of US Customs and Border Protection decided that Apple’s redesign falls outside the scope of the remedial orders in the ITC Investigation underlying Apple’s appeal.

“Apple explained that its Redesigned Watch Products definitively do not contain pulse oximetry functionality.”

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Also published on Healthcareitnews.com

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