Apple to pay $302 million to VirnetX in patent case
Apple has been ordered to pay $302.4 million to licensing company VirnetX, for infringing patents centring on internet security technology.
On September 30, at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, the jury held that Apple infringed two patents relating to its original FaceTime technology.
The patents concerned were US patent numbers 7,418,504 and 7,921,211.
The award of $302.4 million in damages also included the amount Apple must pay for its infringement through its original VPN-on-Demand (VOD).
This was the third trial in a case which dates back to 2010, when VirnetX filed a complaint against Apple claiming that Apple had infringed four of its patents.
In 2012, WIPR reported that a jury had awarded the licensing company $368.2 million in damages.
But, in 2014, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the damages award was based on defective jury instructions, and ordered a new trial.
VirnetX’s two suits were combined, and in February this year, WIPR reported that Apple had been ordered to pay $625.6 million.
Judge Robert Schroeder then threw out the verdict, vacating the order that consolidated the cases between Apple and VirnetX and ruling that the cases should have been split into two separate trials.
He explained that the repeated references to the earlier case could have confused jurors and was therefore unfair to Apple.
The next trial will cover issues surrounding alleged infringement, damages and wilfulness arising from Apple’s redesigned VOD in iOS 7 and 8, the redesigned FaceTime in iOS 7 and 8, and iMessage.
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