Almost, after two and half years, Masimo’s $1.85 billion lawsuit against Apple has ended in a mistrial. Bloomberg reports that seven jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict which resulted in a mistrial.
Masimo, a medical-sensor manufacturer sued Apple in October 2020 for stealing its blood oxygen monitoring technology under the false pretext of a working relationship and later hiring chief medical and chief technology officers to develop the tech for Apple Watch using misappropriate trade secrets.
Introduced in Apple Watch Series 6, the blood-oxygen monitoring sensors enable users to check their oxygen level in just 10 seconds, anywhere and at any time. It pushes the smartwatch further as a health device that offers several health and fitness monitoring and tracking features like EGC, fall detection, sleep tracking, calories, menstruation tracking, blood-oxygen monitoring, and others.
Six out of seven jurors voted in favor of Apple, but one juror’s verdict led to the mistrial
Initially, Masimo sued the tech giant for $3.1 billion but the judge reduced the payout to $1.85 billion after rejecting several of its claims.
During the trial, Apple employees testified that Masimo’s tech was not used in the development of blood oxygen monitoring sensors, however, they convinced the majority of the jurors except for one.
According to the report, earlier in the day on May 2, US District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, California was informed that seven jurors reached an impasse who had been deliberating the case since Wednesday.
Although the tech giant’s lawyer, Jeo Mueller asked the judge to give the Allen charge, the judge did not invoke the Allen charge which urges jurors to reach a consensus because it would have been “too coercive” and later in the day, declared a mistrial.
“We’re not going to be able to come to a joint conclusion,” Earlier, the jury said six of its members voted for Apple and one for Masimo, and she refused to change her mind. US District Judge James Selna declared a mistrial late Monday afternoon.
Upon conclusion of the trial, Apple asked the court to reject all of Masimo’s claims.
“We deeply respect intellectual property and innovation and do not take or use confidential information from other companies. We are pleased that the court correctly rejected half of the plaintiffs’ trade secret allegations, and will now ask the court to dismiss the remaining claims.”
On the other hand, Masimo has its hopes pinned on the United States Trade Commission to impose a trade ban on certain Apple Watch models.
Earlier this year, the Internation Trade Commission (ITC) judge in the U.S. ruled that Apple had infringed on one of five Masimo patents related to blood oxygen measurement sensors used in Apple Watch Series 6 and later models. The ITC has yet to decide whether to implement an import ban on the smartwatches with Masimo’s tech or not.
Masimo is also facing a counter-lawsuit by the tech giant for copying its smartwatch’s design.
