Apple Watch Could Receive A Software Update To Avoid A U.S. Sales Ban, Though Masimo Will Not Make The Change This Simple

wccftech.com:

An Apple Watch sales ban was recently announced by the company as it is believed that certain models were violating patent infringements. Even though Apple is said to halt the sales of its smartwatches starting later this month, a new report states that a software update can help the company operate in the U.S. market once more. Unfortunately, Masimo, the firm that helped push the sales ban as it argues that its patents were infringed upon, brings another problem in Apple’s path.

An Apple Watch software update is currently being worked on that may help avoid the sales ban, according to Bloomberg. President Biden’s administration will eventually decide on the ban, giving the technology giant some breathing room to help its engineers reach the company’s goal. Apple believes that this software update will be able to sate U.S. custom requirements, but the Cupertino firm believes that this decision is a high-stakes engineering effort that has never been attempted before.

While Apple intends to make all efforts to ensure that sales do not halt in the U.S., Masimo has other plans, believing that the patent violations can only be resolved with hardware modifications to a future Apple Watch model, implying that a software update will not be sufficient to stop the ban. Masimo commenced the lawsuit in 2020, stating that the Apple Watch pulse oximeter violated multiple patents that belonged to the company. The case was later presented to the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2021, which resulted in an import ban recommendation.

Assuming Apple cannot circumvent past these Masimo patent infringements, it will have to ban sales in the U.S. and work on a successive Apple Watch model that features hardware that does not violate any