VirnetX seeking to extract $532 million from Apple in patent infringement retrial

virnetx

Patent holding firm VirnetX yesterday told a federal jury that Apple should be slapped with a $532 million fine over an alleged patent infringement pertaining to FaceTime, iMessage and VPN technologies used in its products, which is nearly 45 percent higher than an initial damages award vacated last year.

According to Bloomberg, the notorious patent troll “keeps moving the boundary, asking for more and more and more,” said Apple’s lawyer.

“Apple hasn’t played fair. They have taken Virnetx’s intellectual property without permission,” a lawyer for VirnetX told the jury in Tyler, Texas.

In addition to Apple’s FaceTime video-calling feature and iMessage both allegedly infringing upon VirnetX’s patent portfolio, the company contends that its intellectual property which protects secure communications, known as virtual private networks, is used without permission in Apple’s products.

Apple’s VPN on Demand service was already found to infringe VirnetX patents. The trial is expected to last through next week. VirnetX also won a verdict against Microsoft’s Skype service and has received more than $200 million in years past in various patent infringement cases.

Source: Bloomberg