Apple Hit With $634 Million Verdict in Masimo Patent Dispute
Jury sides with medical device maker in long-running legal battle over the Apple Watch's blood-oxygen sensor technology, escalating the high-stakes feud.
A federal jury in California has ordered Apple Inc. to pay Masimo Corporation $634 million in damages, finding that the technology giant infringed on patents core to the blood-oxygen monitoring features in its popular Apple Watch.
The verdict, delivered Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, marks a significant victory for Masimo and a major escalation in a multi-year legal war that has already disrupted sales of Apple's flagship wearable device. Following the news, shares of Masimo (MASI) jumped more than 4%, reflecting the material impact of the award for the medical technology firm, which has a market capitalization of approximately $8 billion. Apple's stock, in contrast, remained largely unshaken, closing up nearly 2% as investors weighed the penalty against the company's $4 trillion market value.
This ruling is the latest and most financially significant development in a sprawling dispute that began in January 2020. Masimo, a much smaller company renowned for its pulse oximetry technology, accused Apple of poaching key employees and stealing trade secrets to develop the blood-oxygen sensing capabilities first introduced in the Apple Watch Series 6.
The legal battle has been fought on multiple fronts. In late 2023, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) issued an import ban on certain Apple Watch models after finding they infringed on Masimo's patents. The ruling forced Apple to take the rare step of halting U.S. sales of its Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches before relaunching them in January 2024 with the blood-oxygen monitoring feature disabled.
While the $634 million penalty is a rounding error for a company that generates hundreds of billions in annual revenue, the verdict reinforces the legal challenges facing one of Apple’s key growth drivers. The wearables, home, and accessories segment, which includes the Apple Watch, is a critical part of the company’s strategy to expand its health and wellness ecosystem.
In a statement following the verdict, Masimo praised the jury's decision. The company's legal representatives framed the outcome as a crucial win for intellectual property rights against Big Tech. Apple, which has consistently denied the allegations, has stated its intention to appeal the verdict. The tech giant has maintained that its health technology was developed independently and that the lawsuits are an attempt by Masimo to clear a path for its own competing smartwatch.
According to a timeline of the dispute, a separate trade secrets case between the two companies ended in a mistrial in May 2023. The persistent legal pressure highlights the strategic risks for Apple as it pushes deeper into the heavily regulated medical technology space.
The path forward remains complex. Even as it appeals this verdict, Apple faces continued scrutiny from the ITC, which is now evaluating whether a software workaround the company implemented in August 2025 is sufficient to avoid the import ban. The outcome of that review, combined with the ongoing appeals process, ensures that the legal overhang for the Apple Watch will persist, creating uncertainty for a product line central to Apple’s future ambitions.