Fed Circuit rejects Apple appeal over $440m patent damages
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has rejected Apple’s request to overturn a $440 million judgment in a patent infringement case won by IP licensing company VirnetX.
VirnetX has filed six different lawsuits against Apple in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas since 2010.
Apple was ordered to pay $440 million in damages after a jury found the technology company liable for infringement of VirnetX’s patents (numbers 6,502,135; 7,490,151; 7,418,504; and 7,921,211).
The patents cover an “agile network protocol for secure communications with assured system availability”, “establishment of a secure communication link based on a domain name service” and “agile network protocol for secure communications using secure domain names”.
The jury initially awarded damages of $302 million, which, including costs and fees, was later upgraded to $440 million after Apple was found to have wilfully infringed the patents.
According to the verdict, Apple admitted the original version of its “VPN on demand” feature, offered in its iOS 3-6 operating systems from 2009 to 2013, infringed VirnetX’s patents. The jury also found that later versions of Apple’s VPN and FaceTime applications infringed VirnetX’s IP.
In August 2018, WIPR reported that Apple had been denied a request for a new trial in the case.
Apple appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In a judgment issued Tuesday, January 15, the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s verdict.
The company is set to appeal against the decision, according to Reuters raising the prospect of a potential US Supreme Court review, should the court decide to take the case.
WIPR has contacted Apple and VirnetX for comment.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
Today's top stories:
Former Kirkland lawyer accused of overbilling clients
PTAB invalidates web page patent after Google request
Huawei facing US federal investigation for trade secrets theft: reports
