April 5 (Reuters) - Apple ( AAPL ) urged a U.S. appeals

court on Friday to overturn a U.S. trade tribunal's decision to

ban imports of some Apple Watches in a patent dispute with

medical-monitoring technology company Masimo ( MASI ).

Apple ( AAPL ) told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

that the U.S. International Trade Commission's decision was

based on a "series of substantively defective patent rulings,"

and that Masimo ( MASI ) failed to show it had invested in making

competing U.S. products that would justify the order.

Representatives for Apple ( AAPL ) and Masimo ( MASI ) did not immediately

respond to requests for comment on the filing.

Irvine, California-based Masimo ( MASI ) has accused Apple ( AAPL ) of hiring

away its employees and stealing its pulse oximetry technology

after discussing a potential collaboration. Apple ( AAPL ) first

introduced pulse oximetry to its Series 6 Apple Watches in 2020.

Masimo ( MASI ) convinced the ITC on Dec. 26 to block imports of

Apple's ( AAPL ) latest-edition Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches after

finding that their technology for reading blood-oxygen levels

infringed Masimo's ( MASI ) patents.

Apple ( AAPL ) temporarily resumed sales of the watches the next day

after persuading the Federal Circuit to pause the ban. The

appeals court reinstated the ban in January, leading Apple ( AAPL ) to

remove pulse oximetry capabilities from watches sold during the

appeal, which Apple ( AAPL ) has said could last at least a year.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection separately determined in

January that redesigned versions of the watches did not violate

Masimo's ( MASI ) rights and would not be not subject to the ban. Masimo ( MASI )

said in a court filing that the watches "definitively do not

contain pulse oximetry functionality."

Apple ( AAPL ) told the Federal Circuit on Friday that the ban could

not stand because a Masimo ( MASI ) wearable covered by the patents was

"purely hypothetical" when it filed its ITC complaint in 2021.

The tech giant also argued that Masimo's ( MASI ) patents were

invalid and that its watches did not infringe them.