Vapor
Reported by Bloomberg, Apple has been ordered to pay VirnetX another $502.8 million for infringing on its patents. In a ruling by a jury in Tyler, Texas today, Apple was found guilty of infringing on VirnetX's technology that it developed for the United States Central Intelligence Agency with its FaceTime feature.
VirnetX had argued that it was
entitled to more than $700 million, while Apple argued it should only
pay about $113 million. The jury was tasked with deciding on how much
VirnetX should receive, and it landed on $502.8 million.
In a
statement, an Apple spokesperson said that the company would appeal the
decision, pointing to the fact that the patents the case is based on
were determined to be invalid by the patent office.
"We thank the
jury for their time and appreciate their consideration but are
disappointed with the verdict and plan to appeal. This case has been
going on for over a decade, with patents that are unrelated to the core
operations of our products and have been found to be invalid by the
patent office. Cases like this only serve to stifle innovation and harm
consumers."
Bloomberg reached out to VirnetX for a comment, but
the company has not responded at the time of this article's publishing.
This is not the first time that Apple has lost a case against the
company. It has already paid out $454 million to VirnetX in the past
after losing to them in court.
Apple previously paid VirnetX $454
million because of a verdict over earlier versions of the features.
Apple has launched an aggressive campaign to invalidate VirnetX patents,
but its victories at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office hadn't come
in time to avoid its losses in district court.
Source:www.imore.com
Author:JOE WITUSCHEK
Editor:Vapor