Apple Watch faces import ban in the U.S.

The Apple Watch is generally considered to be the most popular smartwatch on the market. Now, the practical gadget, which brings the tech company rich revenues every year, could be banned from import in the US of all places. What is the reason for this?

Patent infringement by the Apple Watch

If Apple does not fundamentally change something about its smartwatch, it could sooner or later face an import ban. This has now been publicly confirmed by none other than US President Joe Biden. The American head of state thus supports the statements of the American regulatory authority ITC. Apple’s smartwatch has been a thorn in its side for quite some time. According to the authorities, Apple is infringing several patents held by a healthcare provider. This is the service provider AliveCor, which has specialized in products in the field of health gadgets.

For Apple, the whole thing should not come as a surprise. After all, the two companies have known each other since 2015, but at that time a partnership was still on the cards. After all, AliveCor had the intention of working together with Apple on the smartwatch that would come later. In doing so, the health expert wanted to offer its expertise and help implement an ECG sensor. However, nothing ever came of the joint planning and implementation of health gadgets. When Apple then independently launched its first smartwatch with an ECG sensor on the market with the Apple Watch Series 4, this immediately resulted in several patent lawsuits from AliveCor.

No more sales in the US?

Now the situation for Apple is slowly but surely coming to a head. During the proceedings, it has come to light that the tech company is alleged to have infringed a total of three patents with its Apple Watch. That’s according to a report from Apfelpage.de. Although U.S. President Joe Biden would have had the opportunity to overturn the ITC’s decision, he did not exercise this right. Thus he confirmed the decision of the supervisory authority. It is an unwritten law that the president does not interfere with the decisions of the ITC, but since Apple is one of the most successful US companies, some expected an intervention. This also happened in 2013, when the then US President Barrack Obama revised a patent decision of the ITC.

In this decision, Samsung denounced patent infringements by the Apple iPhone. If Obama had waved the decision through, there would have been a threat of an import ban on the iPhone. The former head of state obviously didn’t want it to come to that. AliveCor is, of course, delighted. Even if the ITC’s decision does not yet represent a final verdict in this matter, it is an important indication of a possible outcome. The will to win of the healthcare provider has been torpedoed by Apple itself time and again in the meantime. The tech group tried to have the company’s patents declared invalid. We are curious to see how the competent court will now decide. If it confirms the patent infringement, Apple would no longer be allowed to offer its smartwatch in its current form in the US.