The Apple Watch ban story has been developing rapidly over the past week, and now there's a new twist: the U.S. Court of Appeals is putting the U.S. sales and import ban on hold while it reviews the case, meaning the Apple Watch 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 can go on sale again for the time being.
“We're excited to return the entire Apple Watch lineup to customers in time for the new year,” an Apple spokesperson told Ny Breaking. “We are pleased that 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.”
The watches in question are now available again at “select” Apple Stores, and will also be available for purchase via Apple's website from 12pm PT / 3pm ET on Thursday, December 28 (that's 8pm in the UK, and early December 29 in Australia). All Apple Stores should have stock by the weekend.
It is unclear how long the ban will be in effect. The next key date is January 10, the deadline for the International Trade Commission (ITC) in the US to respond to Apple's call – that's the organization that prompted Apple's decision to withdraw the smartwatches from sale in the first place to get.
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This all has to do with a lawsuit that has been rumbling in the background all year, filed by tech company Masimo: it claims that the blood oxygen sensor technology in Apple's watches infringes on patents that have already been registered, and it's proving to be a major headache for Apple are. and the sale of wearable devices.
If 9to5Mac According to reports, Apple has also submitted a software fix that it hopes will get off the hook in terms of patent litigation – a decision on whether or not that update will change anything will be made on January 12, so it will be a busy January be for Apple news.
The complete ban on US sales and imports of the Apple Watch 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 went into effect on Christmas Day, December 25, after the White House administration decided not to intervene and the ruling that had already been passed by the ITC was fixed, undone.
And keep in mind that this is all pre-emptive action by the parties involved: no final decision has been made yet on whether Apple is right or wrong here. However, it's certainly a sore issue for Apple, as the looming threat of a ban continues to impact both sales and possibly repairs and replacements.