AAPL Tumbles After Halting Watch Sales In The US

After taking a late-Friday punch in the face from China – which reportedly announced a more widespread ban on iPhones across government and local state employees – Tim Cook and his pal in Palo Alto just got hit again as 9to5Mac reports that  Apple today said it will be pausing sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the U.S. later this week due to an ongoing patent dispute with medical tech company Masimo related to blood oxygen sensing.

Apple’s full statement:

A Presidential Review Period is in progress regarding an order from the U.S. International Trade Commission on a technical intellectual property dispute pertaining to Apple Watch devices containing the Blood Oxygen feature. While the review period will not end until December 25, Apple is preemptively taking steps to comply should the ruling stand. This includes pausing sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 from Apple.com starting December 21, and from Apple retail locations after December 24. The decision does not impact sales of the devices in other countries at this time.

Apple’s teams work tirelessly to create products and services that empower users with industry-leading health, wellness, and safety features. Apple strongly disagrees with the order and is pursuing a range of legal and technical options to ensure that Apple Watch is available to customers.

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.

That has sent AAPL shares almost 2% lower…

In October, the ITC ordered a ban on some Apple Watch imports into the U.S. after finding that Apple violated Masimo’s patents related to non-invasive blood oxygen sensing, also known as pulse oximetry.

U.S. President Joe Biden has until December 25 to review the order, but presidential vetos of ITC import bans have historically been rare.

Apple added that it “strongly disagrees” with the order and is “pursuing a range of legal and technical options” to ensure that availability of the Series 9 and Ultra 2 resumes in the U.S> as soon as possible.