Masimo has sued US Customs over allowing Apple to restore the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen tool.

According to Bloomberg Law — a subscription is required to read the article — the company says US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unlawfully let Apple reactivate a blood-oxygen tracking feature on Apple Watches that infringes patents for the technology, 

The lawsuit claims that the CBP exceeded its authority in an Aug. 1 internal advice ruling that overturned its own January decision without notice or input from Masimo, the medical-device maker said in a complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. Masimo brought claims under the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause.

On August 14 Apple introduced a redesigned Blood Oxygen feature for some Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users through an iPhone and Apple Watch software update.  Masimo said that was the first time it learned CBP had quietly reversed course two weeks earlier in an ex parte ruling, despite the agency’s policy that such decisions normally require both sides to be heard. The feature has been banned on US Apple Watches since the US International Trade Commission in October 2023 found it infringes claims in two Masimo patents.

From the filing: This action by CBP effectively nullified the ITC’s LEO, exceeded CBP’s statutory authority under the trade laws and the Administrative Procedure Act, and deprived Masimo of its due process rights.  CBP’s function is to enforce ITC exclusion orders, not to create loopholes that 

render them ineffective.  By issuing its August 2025 ruling through an ex parte process and applying a self-imposed rule against considering indirect infringement theories, CBP has acted unlawfully and deprived Masimo of the protections of its patents.  

Masimo seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent CBP from implementing the August 2025 ruling, require CBP to enforce the ITC’s exclusion order as properly interpreted 

in CBP’s prior January 2025 decision,  and ensure that  all future proceedings related to the enforcement of that Order comply with CBP’s own regulations and due process requirements. 

This is all part of the ongoing battle between Masimo and Apple.  In June 2022 Masimo filed a patent infringement complaint against Apple, asking for a ban on impacts of the Apple Watch. The medial device company claimed that the Apple Watch Series 6 infringed on five of its patents for devices that use light transmitted through the body to measure oxygen levels in the blood. The company said that the tech is vial to its business and that Apple is unfairly copying its features.

Masimo and its spinoff Cercacor Laboratories first sued in January 2020. They accused Apple of promising a working relationship only to steal secret information. The tech giant also allegedly attempted to hire away key employees, including Cercacor’s former chief technology officer and Masimo’s chief medical officer.

However, in October 2022 Apple sued medical technology company Masimo Corp in Delaware federal court, accusing its new W1 line of smartwatches of infringing several Apple Watch patents, reports Reuters.

The two lawsuits said Masimo copied Apple’s technology while seeking bans on sales and imports of Apple Watches in earlier intellectual-property cases against the tech giant in California and at a U.S. trade tribunal. Apple said Masimo “carefully studied Apple’s IP” during those cases and claimed a Masimo spinoff received confidential information about the Apple Watch.

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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today