Appeals court ruling means that Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 are banned again in the U.S.

On Thursday, January 18th, Apple will have to once again pull the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 from its online and physical Apple Stores. A federal appeals court has denied Apple's request to continue a stay on the International Trade Commission's (ITC) Exclusion Order on the aforementioned Apple Watch models. The ITC imposed the order after a judge ruled that the pulse oximeter on the affected Apple Watch models had infringed on one patent owned by Masimo.

The Exclusion Order means that the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 cannot be sold in the U.S. Apple was originally given a reprieve until the federal appeals court could rule on Apple's request for a stay on the Exclusion Order until it had exhausted all of its options to appeal. The decision, handed down today, shoots down Apple's request and will require that the ban stay in place throughout the entire appeals process.

Apple will be able to continue selling a redesigned version of the Series 9 Apple Watch and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 after it received approval from U.S. Customs. However, the redesign disables the pulse oximeter feature which measures the amount of oxygen in a person's red blood cells. Another option that Apple has is to license the patent from Masimo although there is no indication that the two companies have met to discuss such a solution.

While Apple has been denied the opportunity to have the Exclusion Order remain on hold through the remainder of the appeals process, there is the possibility that Apple wins the appeal although that could take months and months before a final ruling is made. And all throughout that time period, the ban will be in effect.

If Apple does decide to import the revised version of the affected Apple Watch models with the pulse oximeter disabled, it will not affect the feature on Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 models that have already been purchased. In other words, if you already own one of these watches, you do not have to worry about Apple disabling the feature.