Apple Pause on Holiday Watch Sales Shows Legal Bind It Faces (1)

Apple Inc.’s plan to halt online sales of its smartwatch four days before Christmas to comply with a regulator’s order shows that it’s in a legal jam.

The company has known for almost two months that a ban imposed by the International Trade Commission would take effect Dec. 25 unless it persuaded the Biden administration to intervene — or worked out a settlement with Masimo Corp., the medical device maker that accused it of copying patented technology for measuring blood-oxygen levels.

The iPhone maker now is racing to make software fixes in a work-around effort to get the ...