US Trade Tribunal Blocks Apple Watch Import Ban

The US ITC has denied Masimo's request to reinstate a ban on the Apple Watch due to alleged blood oxygen patent infringement. The decision closes the US case, following a partial win for Apple. Apple has already redesigned the device to avoid the issue.

A US trade tribunal has delivered a significant victory for AAPL in a long-running patent dispute with medical device maker Masimo. The US International Trade Commission denied Masimo's request to reinstate an import ban on the Apple Watch, effectively closing the US case. On April 18, the ITC also ruled that Apple did not have to remedy the underlying infringement claim, removing a key legal overhang for the company .

The dispute centered on Masimo's allegation that the Apple Watch infringed its blood oxygen sensor patents . The legal battle has wound through courts for years; the ITC's ruling follows a March 2026 decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that backed the original ITC ruling in Apple's favor . Masimo had sought to revive the ban after that appellate setback, but the commission declined to reopen the matter.

Separately, the ITC cleared Apple's redesigned Apple Watch for import — engineers had modified the device specifically to sidestep the contested blood oxygen feature. The combined outcome removes the threat of a ban that would have disrupted one of AAPL's most commercially significant product lines, and reinforces the company's position that its current hardware does not infringe Masimo's intellectual property claims.