VirnetX versus Apple; who won?

When you’re a tech giant there has to be some courtroom drama. Patent violation trials are not cool at all but even the biggest tech giants can get tangled up in their webs. This is exactly what has happened to Apple. A federal jury in Texas has ordered Apple Inc to pay more than $302 million to VirnetX Holding Corporation. The verdict was sentenced by Judge Robert Schroeder, who presided over the case in East Texas Federal District Court in Tyler, Texas, reports Reuters.

VirnetX won the lawsuit against Apple after 6 years

VirnetX Holding Corporation accused Apple of using their patented internet security technology without permission in its features. It has been used in FaceTime video conferencing application. The court battle between Apple and VirnetX goes back to 2010 when NPE blamed Apple and other companies for violating five patents that covered virtual private networks. VirnetX then set its focus on Apple accusing the iPhone 4s of infringing a single VPN patent.

Apple lost the iPhone 4s suit in 2012 for $368 million but the ruling was vacated by the U.S cour of appeals for the Federal Circuit last September.  A retrial combined the VirnetX lawsuits slapped Apple with a $625 penalty. Schroeder dismissed the penalty award claiming that references to previous trials had confused jurors. It had led jurors to decide the verdict of an unfair trial. A couple of retrials were under order and the legal battle has ended today with VirnetX winning $302.4 in damaged of patent infringement.

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The company has had a string of winning lawsuits against giant tech firms. Apple is another one that it has won the lawsuit against. It had previously won a trial against Microsoft. The trial against Microsoft led to an out of court agreement in 2010 for $200 million. It had won $23 million in 2014 in a case involving Skype.

Image via MacObserver