President Biden has until December 25th to veto the import ban
Apple has already made changes to the marketing material at U.S. Apple Stores. Signage promoting the Apple Watch no longer shows the Series 9 and the Ultra 2 models
Apple Stores will not be able to sell the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 starting on the afternoon of December 21st
While President Joe Biden doesn’t have to officially make a ruling on the ITC’s import ban until December 25th, Apple decided to take preemptive action now. If the president decides not to issue a veto, Apple will appeal the ruling with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The appeals process could take a long time to absolve Apple, if it does.
The problem with this solution is that the patents that caused the import ban are mostly for hardware including one related to the technology that emits light on an Apple Watch wearer’s skin to help measure his/her blood oxygen level. Apple could disable the feature although this is not something that the firm would probably want to do.
Apple could license the technology from Massimo to make the import ban go away
A normal person at sea level should have a blood oxygen reading between 95% and 100%. Among the medical conditions that cause low readings are COPD, asthma, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), anemia, pneumonia, lung cancer, cardiac arrest, and heart failure.
Another tactic that Apple could try to make this all go away would be to settle with Massimo and license the offending technology. However, not only is this a road that Apple doesn’t like to travel down, Bloomberg says that the two companies have not met to discuss a settlement or to work out a licensing deal. Apple did say on Monday, “Should the order stand, Apple will continue to take all measures to return Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 to customers in the U.S. as soon as possible” so we shouldn’t be too quick to rule out a licensing deal.
