A case filed in Tyler, Texas against Apple Inc. ended this week after the jury ordered the tech giant to pay more than $300 million to VirnetX Holding Corp. for abusing technology that the company has patented.
The case began in 2010 for the violation of two patents: FaceTime and the Virtual Private Network on Demand, or VOD, a technology that allows users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if they were connected directly to each other privately.
The trials
The first verdict stated that Apple Inc. violated two VirnetX patents for the VOD technology, so what was left to decide was how much the company should pay to VirnetX.
Eventually, the jury decided that Apple did infringe two other patents with the implementation of FaceTime in their devices and services. The verdict at that point was to award VirnetX with more than $600 million since it considered the creation of newer Apple products that contained the technology under dispute. However, the jury decided later that Apple had the right to respond to the issues separately. Apple initially said that VirnetX should not receive more than $25 million.
“We are disappointed by the Court’s decision to vacate its prior ruling on consolidation and ordering the parties to retry the cases as two separate matters. We are reviewing all our options and will follow the Court’s direction as we start preparing for these retrials. We are confident that we have the resources required for these retrials. We trust that the jury will again make the right decision in the retrials,” said Kendall Larsen, VirnetX CEO, and President in a press release concerning this issue.
The jury consolidated its verdict ordering Apple to pay millions to VirnetX. However, even when the verdict is already public, the case is not over yet, since Apple still has the chance to go to the U.S. Court of Appeals that can produce its own ruling. VirnetX requires winning that case as well to actually receive the money declared by the jury for its patents.
About VirnetX
The company defines itself as an Internet security software and technology company with patented mechanisms for securing communications over the web. Real-time messaging systems and the 4G LTE security are the main focus of the company.
VirnetX has produced several technology solutions and has been religious with the domain name registry and patent of its technologies, with a portfolio of more than 100 patents in the U.S. and other countries and other 75 pending applications.
Gabriel Connection Technology, its major product, is designed to protect communications in eReaders, video conferencing, smart phones, VoIP and instant messaging services, a system that may be the background of other cases filed by the company against Apple, who is getting sued for security features and the iMessage system.
Source: Bloomberg