Patent trolls in action - VirnetX sued Apple $ 625 million

VirnetX is known more as a banal patent troll, but this month it once again managed to prove the illegal use of its patents in iMessage and FaceTime. In total, the US court ordered Apple to pay $ 625 million, which is much higher than the total amount of Apple’s payments in the last legal process - then VirnetX was able to sue the company $ 368 million.

The bulk of VirnetX’s revenue comes from patent licensing and lawsuits. In the last decade alone, several large IT companies have become victims of VirnetX, including Cisco, Avaya, Siemens and Microsoft, along with several others.
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So, in 2010, VirnetX was able to win over $ 200 million from Microsoft for illegally using VPN patents on Windows Server 2003, XP, Vista, Live Communication Server, Windows Messenger, Office Communication and some versions of Office. And in 2014, the company won a $ 24 million trial from Microsoft for using its own patents in Skype.

"The jury was able to see what we said all the time - Apple is guilty of violating the rules for licensing and using technologies from VirnetX patents," lawyers representing VirnetX presented to journalists in a press briefing

Apple representatives, on the contrary, were surprised by the decision and claim that patents are invalid.

“We are surprised and disappointed with the decision of the court and are going to appeal. Our employees have been developing this technology for many years, and we have patented it to protect intellectual property. The US Patent and Trademark Office recognized all four VirnetX patents as invalid, and cases like this only confirm the need to reform the patent system, ”Apple representatives said.

In a past lawsuit against Apple for $ 368 million, VirnetX was able to prove the illegality of using technologies in FaceTime and the VPN service used in iOS. Subsequently, Apple updated its own services, but VirnetX recognized the changes as insufficient.