It’s not doable to purchase Apple’s newest flagship smartwatches, the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, from the corporate’s online retailer. Apple has eliminated the gadgets from sale on account of a forthcoming import ban imposed by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) that’s on account of take full impact on December twenty sixth. Both watches will disappear from Apple’s brick-and-mortar shops after December twenty fourth.

The ban is the consequence of a patent dispute with medical gadget maker Masimo. The ITC has dominated that the SpO2 sensor in Apple’s smartwatches infringes upon Masimo’s patents. On Wednesday, the ITC denied Apple’s movement to remain the ban whereas awaiting an attraction.

Because the patent dispute pertains to the SpO2 sensor particularly, Apple can proceed to promote its extra reasonably priced Apple Watch SE, which doesn’t come geared up with the sensor. The characteristic debuted on the Apple Watch Series 6 launched in 2020 and has appeared in each flagship Apple smartwatch since. Apple has additionally pulled refurbished variations of two prior watches with SpO2 sensors, the Series 7 and Series 8, from its online retailer. Two particular editions of the Series 9, the Apple Watch Nike and Apple Watch Hermès, have additionally been pulled.

The ITC ban solely applies to Apple’s personal sales channels, which means different retailers like Walmart and Best Buy shouldn’t be affected till their present provides run out. The ban additionally solely impacts watch sales within the US — different areas aren’t impacted.

It’s unclear how lengthy the ban may very well be in impact. Bloomberg earlier reported that Apple’s engineers are working to make modifications to the software program of affected gadgets to keep away from infringing upon Masimo’s patents, altering the best way its algorithms measure blood oxygen ranges and the way they current that information to the wearer. But Masimo says the underlying patents are hardware-related, which could imply software program tweaks aren’t sufficient to resolve the problem. Hardware modifications might take not less than three months to resolve whereas Apple produces and ships new watches, Bloomberg notes.

Option three is a settlement with Masimo, which the corporate’s CEO, Joe Kiani, has stated he’s open to. But as of December nineteenth, Kiani stated, “They [Apple] haven’t called.” In an announcement issued Monday, Apple spokesperson Nikki Rothberg stated the corporate “strongly disagrees” with the ITC’s ruling and is “pursuing a range of legal and technical options to ensure that Apple Watch is available to customers.”