By: STEVEN RUSSOLILLO

A California court jury awarded St. Jude Medical Inc. a $2.3 billion verdict against a former employee and the company that he founded for stealing trade secrets.

The St. Paul, Minn., company said a jury in the Los Angeles Superior Court found former employee Yongning Zou stole trade secrets in order to set up a rival medical-device company, Nervicon. The jury on April 22 awarded a total of $1.47 billion against Mr. Zou and an additional $868 million against Nervicon, according to St. Jude.

The award follows a preliminary injunction issued in November 2010 that prevented Mr. Zou and Nervicon from using or disclosing any of St. Jude's trade secrets as well as confidential or proprietary information, according to St. Jude.

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