Court scraps Apple’s $368m damages ruling
A US appeals court has thrown out a jury order that required Apple to pay software company VirnetX Holding Corp $368.2 million in damages for infringing its patents.
In a judgment released yesterday (September 16), the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the damages award was based on defective jury instructions, and has ordered a new trial.
California-based Apple had been appealing against a November 2012 decision at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
In that ruling, the smartphone maker was found guilty of infringing technology through its FaceTime feature on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, as well as on Mac computers.
Although the appeals court said the asserted patents were valid, it said that the trial judge had incorrectly instructed jurors on how to calculate damages.
“In calculating the royalty base, [the district court] … failed to apportion value between the patented features and the vast number of non-patented features contained in the accused products,” chief judge Sharon Prost wrote for the appeals court on September 16.
VirnetX, based in Nevada, acquired the patents from Science Applications International Corp in 2006.
In a statement, VirnetX said it was disappointed with the decision and looked forward to redressing the issues as soon as possible, according to Reuters.
Apple did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The case will now return to the district court.
