Apple Stops Online Sales and Repairs of Smartwatches in Patent Dispute

Apple stopped selling its latest smartwatches, the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, in its online store Thursday (Dec. 21) due on to an ongoing patent dispute.

The company will no longer provide repair services for out-of-warranty watch models either, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The sales ban on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 was imposed by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) after ruling that Apple had infringed upon two health-technology patents related to blood oxygen sensing held by California-based medical technology company Masimo, according to the report.

The ITC denied Apple’s appeal of its ruling Wednesday (Dec. 20), so, barring intervention from the White House, the ban will go into effect Monday (Dec. 25).

In response, Apple halted online sales of the affected models in the U.S., ahead of the scheduled ban date, the Thursday Bloomberg report said. The company will also stop selling those models in its physical retail stores in the U.S. Sunday (Dec. 24). However, sales will continue at Apple’s international online and in-person stores.

In addition to the sales ban, Apple has informed its customer service teams that they will no longer be able to replace out-of-warranty models of Apple Watches, including the Series 6 and newer models, per the report.

This means that customers with broken screens or other hardware issues will not be able to have them fixed by Apple, according to the report. While software assistance, such as operating system reinstallation, will still be available, hardware replacements are currently unavailable until further notice.

The decision to suspend watch replacements affects most new Apple Watches sold since 2020, including the Series 6, 7, 8 and 9, as well as Ultra and Ultra 2, all of which feature the blood oxygen sensing technology covered by the patents, the report said.

However, customers who purchase watches before the ban comes into effect Monday, as well as those still under warranty, will not be impacted by the replacement prohibition, per the report.

Apple also can’t tell customers that the Apple Watch is still available for purchase at third-party retailers like Best Buy and Target, due to the legal order, according to the report. While these retailers may continue to sell the Series 9 and Ultra 2, their supply may be limited, as they won’t be able to import more watches until the commission’s order is lifted.

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