Apple ordered to pay VirnetX $302.4 million in patent retrial

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A jury has ordered Apple to pay $302.4 million to VirnetX Holding Corp over using its patented virtual private networking protocols in FaceTime and iMessage on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. The case will now go to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington DC before VirnetX sees any payout, Reuters and Bloomberg reported today.

VirnetX has been labeled a patent troll that doesn’t sell any tangible products. The company has launched similar lawsuits against technology giants Microsoft and Cisco.

VirnetX was founded by a group of employees at the Science Applications International Corp. which developed security technology for various federal agencies.

In February 2016, Apple was originally ordered to pay $625 million to VirnetX following a ruling that it used VirnetX’s patented technology without permission. Six months later, the ruling was voided as the judge determined that the case should be revisited.

Be that as it may, it looks like Apple is slowly but surely exhausting its legal options as this is now the third trial between the two companies.

VirnetX filed its first legal case against Apple back in 2010.

Source: Bloomberg, Reuters