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Court throws out $368 million judgement against Apple in VirnetX patent lawsuit

Recode reports that a federal appeals court today threw out a previous ruling granting VirnetX Holding Corp $368.2 million in damages in its long-running patent lawsuit against Apple:

Apple had appealed a November 2012 jury finding that it infringed VirnetX’s patents for virtual private network, or VPN, technology through the FaceTime feature on its iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad products, as well as on its Mac computers… While agreeing that some patents were infringed, the appeals court said the verdict was tainted by incorrect jury instructions from the trial judge on how to calculate damages, and that the error was not harmless.

The case previously resulted in Apple changing the behaviour of its VPN On Demand feature in iOS after it lost the initial patent case to VirnetX.

The case isn’t over yet, however, as both companies will return to U.S. District Court in Tyler, Texas work out what damages Apple will ultimately be on the hook for. VirnetX shares were down significantly today following the news.

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Comments

  1. Howie Isaacks - 10 years ago

    Apple should buy VirtnetX and fire everyone.

  2. Michael Superczynski - 10 years ago

    “…what damages Apple will ultimately be on the hook for.”
    What? Shouldn’t that be “what damages VirnetX will ultimately be on the hook for”.
    Last time I checked, the loser of a lawsuit has to pay damages to the winner.

    • mburnet6 - 10 years ago

      It doesn’t say that Apple won…the appeals court threw out the damages because the jury was improperly instructed on how to calculate them.

      “While agreeing that some patents were infringed, the appeals court said the verdict was tainted by incorrect jury instructions from the trial judge on how to calculate damages”

    • Daniel L. Lau - 10 years ago

      Loser only pays in cases of fraud. Outside of that, losing doesn’t put either party on the hook for the other’s legal fees. That’s why most companies settle patent disputes regardless of the merits of the case.

    • thejuanald - 10 years ago

      Yeah, Apple is still the loser in this. VirnetX will just be getting less money than before.

  3. Ryan - 10 years ago

    FYI its Judgment with no “e”

  4. chief7771 - 10 years ago

    patent trolls

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.


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