Apple’s Damages Exposure Cut as Masimo Secrets Case Goes to Jury

Apple Inc. would have to pay a maximum of $1.85 billion if it’s found liable of illegally profiting from a competitor’s technology, a little more than half the $3.1 billion Masimo Corp. initially sought.

A federal judge in Santa Ana, California, dismissed business and marketing claims against the iPhone maker at the end of a three-week trial, leaving for the jury to decide only if Apple improperly used trade secrets related to a blood-oxygen monitoring sensor in its Apple Watch.

Apple poached Masimo employees to learn about its technology after Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook nixed an internal proposal to buy the company, Masimo’s lawyer, Joseph Re, told the jury in closing arguments Wednesday.

Apple, Masimo Push for Judgments as Trade-Secret Trial Nears End

“You decide how unjust it was,” Re said. “You pick the number.”

The jury began deliberations in the afternoon and will resume Thursday if it doesn’t reach a verdict.

Apple has denied any wrongdoing, with its lawyer, Joseph Mueller, telling jurors that all its employees involved in the development of the blood-oxygen center had denied on the witness stand using any Masimo trade secrets.

“Those real people took the stand and they told you the truth,” Mueller said.

Because they told the truth, “there is no there there,” he added.

Mueller said if the jury finds that Apple did misappropriate Masimo’s technology, the smaller rival would only be entitled to about $34 million, because that’s what the technology it claims was misappropriated added in value.