Apple will be forced to pay $ 500 million patent troll

The Texas Federal Court of Justice yesterday ruled that Apple should pay $ 502.6 million to VirnetX, reports Bloomberg. A jury ruled that Apple violated some of VirnetX's patents when creating FaceTime and iMessage. This is part of a legal battle between two companies that lasts more than eight years.

VirnetX, which many people call the “most successful patent troll in the world,” is a company from Nevada, founded by former executives and engineers of SAIC , who has been developing digital communications protection technologies for the US Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies since 1969. She had four patents in the field of LTE communication protection. The company also cheaply bought or received about 100 additional patents, earning the status of one of the “leaders” in the field of mobile security. Most of the company's employees are lawyers filing lawsuits against those who can use technologies similar to those patented and owned by VirnetX.

The company has several of its products, including the Gabriel Collaboration Suite ( Google Play ), a “secure messaging system,” but for the whole of 2017 its revenue from its developments amounted to slightly more than $ 1 million. At the same time, its shares increased by 70% - waiting for investors to win over Apple.

Apple and VirnetX have been going to court since 2010. Then VirnetX said that the creator of iPhones violated its patent regarding the security of user data when sending Internet messages. Companies conducted several simultaneous lawsuits for different patents. Then these processes were combined, and in February-2016, the court ruled that Apple should pay VirnetX $ 625.6 million in total. But in August of the same year, the federal court rejected the verdict, explaining that managing several lawsuits in one case at the same time could confusing members of the jury ".

In October 2017, in one of the divided claims, it came to an end, and VirnetX came out the winner. Apple was ordered to pay $ 439.7 million (the company filed an appeal for this decision, and has not paid the money yet). Now the case connected with the updated FaceTime protocol, presented in iOS 7, came to an end. The jury decided that Apple should pay another $ 502.6 million. On this news, VirnetX shares rose 44% in one day.

The executive director of VirnetX said that a fine was imposed, based on sales data of about 400 million Apple devices with their technology. He added that the court decision was fair, the evidence was obvious, and the “intellectual property portfolio” that VirnetX holds is “the obvious basis of our business model.”

The region of East Texas in the United States is considered the best place to “succeed” in similar courts regarding patent infringement. Proceedings occur there in 25% of all patent disputes in America. Last year, the US Supreme Court ruled that patent holders can no longer choose which court to sue, but the decision between VirnetX and Apple has not yet affected this decision.

Prior to this, VirnetX has already received from Microsoft $ 200 million in 2010 (for Office, Windows Server, Windows Messenger and other products), and another $ 23 million from Microsoft in 2014 for the Skype case. VirnetX vs Microsoft cases were also considered by the federal jury in Texas.

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