Although it seems like everyone is biting into Apple these days, the business was finally given a chance to survive on Wednesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals lifted the import restriction on Apple Watch. This will continue for the next week or so as Apple pursues its appeal of the sales ban imposed by the Internal Trade Commission.
With an appeals court granting it a temporary reprieve on an ongoing import restriction, the Cupertino tech giant is now pushing its Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 series watches back onto store shelves as rapidly as it can. Gizmodo was informed by Apple that the wearables are already back in stock at a few specific retailers. By December 30, the products ought to be offered in even more Apple stores. In the near future, Apple is scheduled to begin accepting orders for its online store at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, December 28.
Apple has already sent U.S. Customs recommended design revisions for the Apple Watch in the hopes that the agency will reconsider the import prohibition. A complete decision to approve those changes—which can result in a lifting of the import ban—will be provided by U.S. Customs by January 12.
“We are pleased the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has stayed the exclusion order while it considers our request to stay the order pending our full appeal.” As early as January 15, the courts could consider the entire motion for an appeal over the import ban and issue a more definitive decision.
In a few weeks, we might return to this location to repeat the entire song and dance. Even yet, this is Apple’s first significant win in a number of weeks since the Cupertino tech company was forced to remove its watches from its online store and Apple Store shelves shortly before Christmas due to an ITC ruling. Earlier this week, trade representatives dashed Apple’s hopes of having the White House veto the decision prohibiting its wearables.
The appeal for an extended stay may be contested by the ITC until January 10th. Masimo, the business whose blood oxygen sensor copyright claim started the whole controversy, argued on Tuesday that it needed to defend its patent rights, and on Wednesday the court gave it permission to challenge the appeal. Since Apple was still able to sell the Apple Watch SE and earlier models of the watch, the ITC has previously claimed that the company doesn’t suffer too much harm.
This whole thing is centered around a patent issue that has become increasingly complex over the last few months. After the ITC ruled in October to prohibit imports, Apple has had difficulty finding a means to maintain its wearables on store shelves. Interesting anecdotes were revealed by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg regarding an ex-Masimo engineer who initially presented the blood oxygen sensor technology to Apple. Apple was reportedly informed by the scientist, Dr. Marcelo Lamego, that the technology would establish the company as the “No. 1 brand in the medical, fitness, and wellness market.”
Apple probably just wants to sell its dang watch for the time being.
