If you haven’t been paying attention to this Apple debacle over its smartwatch, then listen up because it’s juicy.

The latest versions of Apple smart watches just went on sale without one of their most hyped-up features. Originally, the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 were gonna have a blood oxygen feature.

The watch would be able to test the oxygen levels in your blood using infrared sensors. But Apple had to scrap that idea because they lost a battle over the patent for the technology. 

Back in 2020, a medical technology company called Masimo sued Apple for allegedly stealing its trade secrets.

According to Masimo’s founder Joe Kiani, Apple reached out in the early 2010s about a partnership. The company had already been doing work on the blood oxygen sensors for its own line of smartwatches. Since they already had the patent and Apple had the customer base, it seemed like a win-win. 

A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention that gives its owner the legal right to prevent others from making, using, or selling the same invention. 

Well! According to court documents, shortly after the agreement was made, Apple started scooping up Masimo’s employees, reportedly offering them double their salaries. 

Apple then patented its own version of the blood oxygen tech. And wouldn’t you know it, they released the Watch Series 6, featuring blood-oxygen monitoring, in 2020. 

The following year, Masimo filed an official complaint with the US International Trade Commission, ITC, in hopes of getting the Apple Watches pulled from the market. But that didn’t go far.

Then Apple pulled a UNO reverse and sued Masimo, claiming that its line of watches was too similar to the latest Apple Watch. But in October 2023, the ITC ruled in favour of Masimo, saying that Apple violated its patents. 

The agency went as far as banning the import of the newest Apple Watches in the United States, which was a major loss for Apple.

Now, with iPhone sales already on the decline, there’s no way Apple would just trash two whole Apple watch series. So, their solution was just to remove the feature altogether and still sell the products.

So you will see an option for blood oxygen monitoring on your Apple watch, but you’ll get an error message when you try to open the app.

And that’s the bottom line.