It was reported on April 25 that the medical device company Masimo suffered another setback in the long-term legal dispute surrounding the Apple Watch blood oxygen detection patent. The latest documents from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia show that a related lawsuit filed by Masimo against the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) will be concluded with a "dismissal with prejudice," which means that the case cannot be re-filed in the same court with the same claim.
The report pointed out that the background of this dispute is Masimo's attempt to promote the restoration of the import ban on Apple Watch. According to court documents submitted on April 24, Masimo, the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have agreed to dismiss the relevant lawsuits, and will subsequently submit a formal dismissal agreement text.
Although the Apple Watch is not directly named in the document, the content of the case is the patent infringement dispute between Masimo and Apple that has lasted for many years, as well as issues surrounding the execution, maintenance and cancellation of related injunctions.
Looking back on previous developments, on March 19 this year, an administrative judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit supported the original ruling made by the U.S. International Trade Commission in October 2023, which found that the Apple Watch involved in the case was prohibited from being imported into the United States. However, just one day before the ruling was supported, the U.S. International Trade Commission believed that there was no need to impose a second ban on this wearable device. This judgment is very critical for Apple.
Then on April 17, the U.S. International Trade Commission rejected Masimo’s request to reinstate the ban, decided not to review the previous preliminary ruling, and officially closed the case. This district court document further confirms that the proceedings related to the complaint filed by Masimo against the International Trade Commission and the Customs Department will also end in rejection.
However, this does not mean that the legal battle between Masimo and Apple is over. According to the report, Masimo can still continue to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the deadline for submitting a notice of appeal is June 16, 2026.
For Apple, this latest document means that the risk of Masimo once again pushing Apple Watch to encounter a new round of sales or import restrictions in the United States in the short term has been significantly reduced. However, the report also mentioned that this does not mean that Apple has restored the display of blood oxygen-related functions on the Apple Watch; currently, the relevant viewing functions have not been restored on the Apple Watch and can only be viewed on the iPhone.
Judging from the course of the case, this lawsuit can be traced back to 2020, when Masimo sued Apple in the U.S. Federal District Court for the Central District of California; in 2021, Masimo filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission. In 2023, the initial federal court lawsuit ended in mistrial, but Masimo won the International Trade Commission case, which triggered a U.S. import ban on related Apple Watch products.
Since then, Apple has turned off the blood oxygen detection function of Apple Watch in the US market through a software update. This adjustment finally convinced the US Customs and Border Protection to lift the ban in January 2024. By November 2025, Masimo received a $634 million award in another federal jury trial, showing that although the dispute between the two parties has progressed and retreated in stages, it is far from truly over.