Serial patent thief Apple is facing a new problem after evidence that Apple did not want to be disclosed is set to now be considered in the patent theft case of Sound United Company, Masimo Vs Apple.
Shortly after an Apple witness violated a pretrial order in the Masimo Vs Apple case by disclosing evidence Apple did not want disclosed, U.S. District Judge James V. Selna has reversed the order to allow the new evidence that some claim is detrimental to Apple to be disclosed.
The Court has heard that Masimo the medical Company lost seven senior executives to Apple in a splash the cash hiring spree and not two as originally disclosed, in the patent theft trial in which Apple has been accused of using patented Oxygen measurement technology in their Apple Watch owned by Masimo.
Apple was close to finishing up their defence when a witness suddenly disclosed evidence that they had fought not to be disclosed, this changed the direction of the case.
US media covering the case claim it was ‘A big win for Masimo”.
Judge Selna’s reversal meant that a witness – an Apple executive who had already completed his testimony – will now be brought back in for more questioning by Masimo attorneys.
The reversal also meant that additional documentary evidence surrounding Apple’s planning to approach Masimo employees could suddenly be introduced the amount of money Apple as well spent on hiring the executives.
Originally the jury only heard that a Dr. Lamego and a Dr. O’Reilly were key to the issue of Apple developing an effective sensor.
Now there is new evidence that others were involved in what Masimo is describing as the theft of patents.
According to a report by legal reporter Meghann Cuniff, even though the judge “agreed with Masimo that this evidence ‘could give rise to an inference of plan, intent, etc., [by Apple to poach Masimo employees] he agreed with Apple that the evidentiary value was outweighed by evidence concerns.’”
The case went pear shaped for Apple when during his original testimony, Apple Vice President for Hardware Technologies Steve Hotelling took the witness stand and denied that Apple targeted Masimo employees.
Masimo’s attorneys jumped on this, filing a motion with the judge in which they said that Hotelling’s testimony was “at a minimum, misleading and incomplete.”
Masimo also has their own health watch.
Masimo should be allowed to correct the false impression that Apple hired only two former Masimo employees.
After consideration the judge then reversed his pre-trial decision in order to allow Masimo to again cross-examine Hotelling, and introduced further documents, emails, and other evidence establishing that, in fact, that Apple had a plan to go after Masimo employees.
Jurors were shown an email exchange between Hotelling and Apple engineering recruiter Lan Nguyen that had a subject line “Recruiting from Masimo” and body text asking Nguyen to speed up research on Masimo and suggested “researching next level down” [a reference to the next level of employees below Lamego and O’Reilly].
Hotelling and jurors were also shown another email, this one from Dr. Lemago to Hotelling, in which he indicated that bringing on Johannes Bruinsma, another Masimo employee, would “bring value to the sensing team.”
Hotelling in his renewed cross-examination by Masimo’s attorneys said he did not recall the email, but he did admit that Bruinsma and at least four other Masimo employees came to work at Apple.
“I would say it’s accurate that these people joined Apple… Though not unusual for people [from] other companies to join Apple or vice versa,” Hotelling answered.
It was also revealed that during discovery, Masimo executives learned of an internal project at Apple called Project Everest.
In a slideshow for Apple’s upper management, Project Everest’s purpose was to study ways to target Masimo in order to help the Apple Watch.
One of the options shown on a slide was “acquisition of Cercacor and/or Masimo (or people or assets).”
Apple has now finished giving evidence with the jury now out in the case.
