Texas court vacates $625m Apple infringement ruling
A judge has thrown out a verdict in which Apple was ordered to pay a licensing company $625.6 million for patent infringement, ruling that the case should have been split into two separate trials.
In a decision handed down by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Judge Robert Schroeder vacated a previous order that consolidated the cases between Apple and VirnetX.
Nevada-based VirnetX accused Apple of infringing its patents through features including FaceTime and iMessage. All four patents cover a secure online communication network.
It filed two separate lawsuits which focussed on older and newer versions of the technologies.
The initial ruling, handed down in February this year, saw Apple found liable for infringement.
In the latest ruling, Schroeder said combining the cases may have confused jurors and was unfair to Apple. He has now scheduled the first trial for September 26 and the second for a later date, after the first has concluded.
Kendall Larsen, CEO of VirnetX, said it was disappointed with the decision.
“We are reviewing all our options and will follow the court’s direction as we start preparing for these retrials,” Larsen added.
The first trial will focus on the damages owed to VirnetX for Apple’s alleged infringement through its original VPN-on-Demand (VOD), and the alleged infringement and damages related to its original FaceTime technology.
The second 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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