Apple gets reprieve; ITC's Apple Watch Exclusion Order is temporarily halted

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Wednesday morning ruled in favor of Apple's emergency request to halt the Exclusion Order issued by the International Trade Commission (ITC) against the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. The tech giant filed an emergency request with the court asking it to halt the import ban after filing for an appeal.

Following a ruling earlier this year that the pulse oximeter found on certain Apple Watch models infringed on patents held by Masimo, the ITC issued the Exclusion Order which officially took effect on December 25th after the presidential review period expired without President Biden issuing a veto. Over the last week, Apple removed the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 from its online and physical Apple Stores in the U.S.

Per Reuters, the appeals court said that it is halting the ban on the Apple Watch models while it considers ruling on the company's request for a longer-term pause on the ITC's order during the appeals process. The ITC has until January 10th to respond to Apple's request.

After the White House declined to intervene on Apple's behalf, the company filed the appeal but was also working on other ways to get the offending timepieces brought back to virtual and physical store shelves at Apple's online and physical Apple Stores. Over the past week, Apple had engineers working to find a new way to offer Apple Watch users blood oxygen readings without infringing on Masimo's patents. It isn't clear if Apple has been able to succeed on this front.

While Apple could no longer sell the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 models in the U.S., the products were still available from third-party stores such as Walmart, Target, and Best Buy as long as these stores had inventory.