Apple Resumes Sales of its Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the US

After a US appeals court halted the Apple Watch ban in the US yesterday, Apple has started resuming sales of its Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the country. An Apple spokesperson told Bloomberg that the two Apple Watch models are now available at select US Apple stores, with broader availability expected by Saturday. Apple will also resume online sales of the two Watch models later today at 3 PM ET.

“Apple’s teams have worked tirelessly over many years to develop technology that empowers users with industry-leading health, wellness and safety features and 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,” Apple said in an official statement.

Last week, Apple stopped selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 following a ruling from the International Trade Commission (ITC). This ruling is the result of a patent dispute with medical technology company Masimo, which claimed that recent Apple Watch models with the blood oxygen feature infringe on the company’s patents related to blood oxygen monitoring.

Following the ITC ban, Apple was still allowed to sell the Apple Watch SE in the US, as this model doesn’t include the blood-oxygen feature. Other retail stores were also free to continue selling their remaining stock of Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models.

However, the appeals court said yesterday that Apple can once again sell the two Watch models until the US Customs and Border Protection decides to either approve or reject a software update that Apple submitted to address the patent dispute with Masimo. This decision is expected to come on January 12.

This saga is probably not over yet as Apple’s software fix for its blood-oxygen technology may not be a good enough solution for the company’s patent infringement case. Masimo previously said that “the hardware needs to change.” We’ll see what happens in early January, and if Apple’s upcoming software update doesn’t cut it, the company could try reaching a licensing agreement with the medical technology company to end the patent dispute.