Apple hit with $440M in damages in VirnetX patent lawsuit
Apple hit with $440M in damages in VirnetX patent lawsuit
Judge issues final judgment in legal battle with patent
holder that began in 2010.
BY STEVEN MUSIL OCTOBER 16, 2017 3:59 PM PDT
Apple's years-long legal battle with VirnetX may finally
be coming to a close.
A US District Court judge in Texas has entered a final
judgment in the patent case, which accused Apple of infringing patents related
to its iMessage and FaceTime features. The judgment, filed on Sept. 29, means
Apple is on the hook for $439.7 million in damages, patent holding and security
software company VirnetX said in a statement Monday.
The damages total is nearly $140 million higher than the
$302.4 million Apple was ordered to pay VirtnetX a year ago. Willful
infringement added another $41 million, while attorneys' fees and other costs tacked
on another $96 million, VirtnetX said.
The judgment appears to be the end of a trio of lawsuits
filed since 2010 against Apple by VirnetX, a company that makes most of its
money from licensing patented technology that creates virtual private networks
over the internet. VirnetX alleged Apple infringed patents covering secure
computer and mobile communications.
A verdict in February 2016 ordered Apple to pay VirnetX
$625.6 million in damages after two lawsuits were combined. But in August, a
federal judge voided the verdict, saying that combining two lawsuits into a
single trial confused the jurors and was unfair to Apple. He ruled that both
cases needed to be tried separately.
Apple said it plans to appeal the decision.
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