Things aren’t looking good for Apple as President Biden faces a tough call about those new Apple Watches. You know, the shiny new Series 9 and Ultra 2 models that just hit stores? Well they might have to yank them off shelves because of some patent beef with this medical company Masimo.
Apparently Masimo has a patent on some pulse oximeter tech that measures your blood oxygen – kinda important for those health tracking features Apple touts. So when some judges said Apple violated Masimo’s patent, it triggered this ruling that could ban recent Apple Watches.
But now Apple’s pulled ’em already from their site and stores. Come Tuesday when the Apple store doors open, don’t expect to see any Series 6 or later watches in stock, including the fancy Ultra. The only one you might spot is the SE.
This back and forth between Apple and Masimo has been brewing awhile though. Apple actually sued them two months ago over some alleged patent funny business. So suffice to say, Apple thinks this ruling is BS. Not sure if they can get it overturned legally at this point though.
So President Biden’s on the clock – he’s gotta decide by midnight Christmas to step in. Something like this happened before too – remember Obama squashed a ban on older iPhones and iPads in some patent fight between Apple and Samsung? We’ll see if Biden pulls another eleventh hour save here. Gotta imagine Apple’s feeling pretty tense though! Billions in revenue on the line if they can’t sell the latest Watch bling.
