Stefan Mileschin

Must pay VirnetX $440 million

Apple has lost an appeal to have a patent judgment set aside relating to FaceTime technology and has been ordered to pay VirnetX $440 million.

The verdict was originally awarded in 2016, in which Apple was required to pay the intellectual property firm $302.4 million in damages for using two patents in the FaceTime mobile calling service without a valid licensing agreement. Apple vowed to appeal, and three years later has lost.

The court case in question was a retrial based on a 2012 lawsuit in which VirnetX was awarded $368 million in damages. This award was thrown out on appeal in two years later, leading to the successful 2016 lawsuit.

Now with all the interest, damages, and costs, Apple must pay $440 million.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied the iPad and iPhone maker's bid to turn aside the ruling. However, Apple said in a statement that the company plans to, once again, appeal the judge's verdict.

In 2016, Nevada-based VirnetX won another patent dispute involving Apple, the latter of which was ordered to pay $625.6 million in damages and royalty fees after violating four patents relating to Internet security.

VirnetX had won three separate jury trials against Apple, all in the Eastern District of Texas. Two were successfully appealed and in February 2016, the jury in a second trial sided with VirnetX in a $625 million verdict against Apple. But that verdict was thrown out by the trial's judge, who didn’t approve of VirnetX lawyers' references to the 2012 trial. A third trial was held in September 2016, and it resulted in a $302 million verdict, which is what the judge added to in his October 2017 judgment.

VirnetX's patents which originated at a company called Science Applications International Corporation, or SAIC.

https://fudzilla.com/news/47965-appl...cetime-lawsuit