Apple to halt smartwatches’ monitoring feature

Apple says it will disable a blood-oxygen monitoring feature on its two most popular watches in the U.S. starting Thursday to comply with a court-ordered revival of a sales ban stemming from a patent dispute.

The decision to turn off the blood-oxygen sensor for consumers who buy either the Apple Watch Series 9 or Ultra 2 in the U.S. came after a federal appeals court on Wednesday refused to extend an order that had allowed the watches to remain in stores during a battle over the rights to some of the technology.

A temporary stay issued by the

U.S. Court of Appeals three weeks ago had allowed the two watch models to return to stores in the U.S. after Apple pulled them from shelves and websites just before Christmas as part of a long-running battle with medical technology company Masimo.

The U.S. International Trade Commission in late October ruled a blood-oxygen sensor in the Apple Watch models infringed on Masimo’s patents, a finding that Apple is trying to overturn in appeals court. But that could take at least a year to unfold, forcing the Cupertino, California, company to find another way to keep its premium watches available in the United States.

In a Monday court filing, Masimo disclosed Apple has won approval from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection on revisions that would remove the blood-oxygen sensor from the watches.

Signaling Apple’s confidence of winning the appeal of the ITC ruling, the Series 9 and Ultra 2 models sold in the U.S. beginning Thursday will still come with a Blood Oxygen icon, but when it’s pressed, users will be greeted by a notice telling them the technology isn’t available.

Those who have already bought the Series 9 and Ultra 2 models in the U.S. will still be able to use the blood-oxygen sensor.