Apple and Masimo are back in California for a bench trial for the lawsuit, where Masimo claimed that Apple illegally poached its employees and stole trade secrets when developing the Apple Watch.
Masimo filed the case in 2020, and the jury trial was in April 2023. During the trial, more than half of Masimo’s trade secret claims were invalidated, though ultimately it was deemed a mistrial and both parties were told to retry the case with another jury.
Masimo abandoned all its initial monetary compensation claims and instead asked for a bench trial. The bench trial will decide whether there were any trade secret violations and will consider Masimo’s claims.
With 15 out of 17 patents being invalidated, the patent portion of the trade secret case is on hold. The trade secret lawsuit is different from the patent infringement case and ITC injunction lawsuit that is preventing the sale of Apple Watch models with a blood oxygen sensor.
Apple is planning to appeal the ITC’s Apple Watch injunction, though it has been selling the Apple Watch by disabling the blood oxygen sensor that allegedly infringes on Masimo’s technology.
It is said that to get this sale ban on Apple watches, Masimo rushed to create one of its own smartwatches, the W1 Freedom, in 2022 and intentionally copied several of Apple’s patents.
Apple filed a patent lawsuit against Masimo due to the W1 Freedom. Last week, a jury decided that Masimo had infringed on Apple Watch patents. In compensation, Apple asked for $250 to get Masimo to stop copying their design.
Apple’s ultimate goal in this bench trial is to get the court to overturn the ITC’s ruling that is preventing them from selling Apple Watch models with blood oxygen sensing in the United States. The company is considering all possible methods to get the ruling in its favor.
