A federal jury in California said on Friday that Apple owes medical-monitoring technology company Masimo $634 million for infringing a patent covering blood-oxygen reading technology.
Apple has already said it will appeal, which will further prolong the case. It first impacted consumers when Apple was compelled to disable the blood oxygen sensor in Apple Watch models sold in the US (see “Apple Disables Blood Oxygen App in New Apple Watches,” 18 January 2024). Apple subsequently negotiated an iPhone‑based workaround with US Customs and Border Protection, as we covered in “Blood Oxygen Monitoring Returns with iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1” (14 August 2025). Separately, the US International Trade Commission decided last week to hold a new proceeding to determine whether Apple’s workaround still infringes Masimo’s patents. If blood oxygen monitoring is important to you, confirm current feature availability before purchasing—the situation may change as these processes unfold.
Just to be confusing, this is a different patent from the one that prevented Apple importing watches into the US. That patent is still in effect, while the patent in the $634 million ruling is a patent that expired in 2022, covering “low power pulse oximeter features,”but which Apple has now been ruled to infringed until the patent expired in 2022.
Whichever way it goes, Apple has not been an angel in any of these actions. They’ve definitely played the bully with Masimo and its patents. From hosting a meeting before the Apple Watch was released to discuss using Masimo technology, to then hiring away Masimo’s CTO and then delivering technology on the Apple Watch using patented Masimo technology without license or permission, to appearing to strong-arm its way to a work-around to get blood oxygen features back on the watch, Apple has not been a good actor at all in this drama. I have no sympathy for Apple’s multiple losses in these court cases, though I do wonder, as a consumer, it it would have been cheaper in the long-run to license the technology rather than pay lawyers, court-costs, etc.
Masimo is no mere typical patent-troll - they are a real medical technology company that have developed and sold real products along the way.