Apple Watches violate AliveCor patents but import ban on hold -U.S. ITC

FILE PHOTO: A customer browses Apple watches at the new Apple Store on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 24, 2021. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

(Reuters) - Apple Inc's Apple Watches with an electrocardiogram (ECG) function infringe patents belonging to medical device maker AliveCor Inc, the U.S. International Trade Commission affirmed on Thursday.

The ITC said imports of the infringing watches should be banned, but that it would not enforce a ban until appeals were finished in a separate dispute before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where a panel found AliveCor's patents invalid earlier this month.

(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Edited by David Bario and Chris Reese)