VirnetX seeks $532M from Apple in patent infringement retrial

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2016
Patent holding firm VirnetX argued in court on Monday that Apple should pay $532 million for allegedly infringing on intellectual property protecting secure communications, a sum nearly 45 percent higher than an initial damages award vacated last year.




VirnetX lawyers took the offensive on the first day of their renewed quest to Apple money, a proceeding scheduled to run for the next week in patent owner-friendly East Texas Federal District Court, reports Bloomberg.

"Apple hasn't played fair. They have taken Virnetx's intellectual property without permission," said VirnetX lawyer Brad Caldwell.

The same argument was successfully leveraged in 2012 when a Texas jury found Apple's FaceTime protocol in infringement of a VPN patent owned by VirnetX. Apple was ordered to pay out $368.2 million in damages, but the original ruling was ultimately thrown out by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in September.

A parallel complaint was lodged with the U.S. International Trade Commission prior to last year's CAFC verdict. VirnetX previously asserted its patented technology against Microsoft, which settled out of court for $200 million in one case and $23 million in another targeting Skype.

The CAFC decision to throw out the Texas court's original damages ruling against Apple gave VirnetX the chance to update its claims to include newer devices like the iPad Air, iPad mini with Retina display, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPod Touch with Retina display and various Mac computers.

For its part, Apple during the first trial brought the validity of VirnetX's patent into question, but the same arguments cannot be reinserted into this retrial action. The company contends VirnetX is taking advantage of the situation.

"Apple believes in fairness and protecting intellectual property," Apple counsel Greg Arovas said on Monday. "VirnetX keeps moving the boundary, asking for more and more and more."

Arovas mentioned Microsoft's $200 million settlement, but did not go so far as to suggest Apple is offering the same.

The VirnetX suit is already estimated to have cost Apple millions of dollars. After the initial ruling in 2012, Apple modified the FaceTime platform to avoid further infringement, a move thought to cost as much as $2.4 million per month. Despite the corrective action, VirnetX argues Apple's modifications did not satisfactorily skirt its IP.

The current retrial involves FaceTime, iMessage and other secure network features built into Apple's various operating systems.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    I wonder how VirnetX lawyer, Brad Caldwell, can walk normally with balls that large?
    palomine
  • Reply 2 of 11
    chris_cachris_ca Posts: 2,543member
    Patent holding firm VirnetX argued in court on Monday that Apple should pay $532 million 
    because they have a lot of money...
    jbdragon
  • Reply 3 of 11
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    What the fuck has VirnetX contributed to this world? What product, software, or technology have they released?

    Fucking trolls. 
    lostkiwi
  • Reply 4 of 11
    Why can't Apple just do a hostile takeover of this noxious company? Surely Apple has the funds to buy out VHC?
    brakkencornchip
  • Reply 5 of 11
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    lostkiwi said:
    Why can't Apple just do a hostile takeover of this noxious company? Surely Apple has the funds to buy out VHC?
    Good idea. What were Microsoft thinking paying 200M? It would appear their market cap is only 212.71M (if I am looking at the right company). Just gobble them up.
    edited January 2016
  • Reply 6 of 11
    williamhwilliamh Posts: 1,032member
    slurpy said:
    What the fuck has VirnetX contributed to this world? What product, software, or technology have they released?

    Fucking trolls. 
    Read the article again.  Apparently they contributed a technology that costs Apple a few million per month to circumvent.  That's what the fuck they did. You seem to argue that if you invent something (and patent it) that you have no right to it unless you can release something.  Let's suppose you invent a more efficient airplane.  Can you produce airplanes?
    cnocbuisingularitycornchipfreshmaker
  • Reply 7 of 11
    This must be incredibly technical. Is a jury honestly capable of reaching the correct decision?
    jbdragon
  • Reply 8 of 11
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    adefowler said:
    This must be incredibly technical. Is a jury honestly capable of reaching the correct decision?

    That’s why most of these lawsuits are filed in a single Texas county where juries are particularly hostile to corporations and assume guilt straight away. No need to understand the technicalities when you are inclined to find guilt. I live in a county like that in Illinois (Madison County) where almost all railroad injury lawsuits from around the country are filed as well as asbestos lawsuits. Madison County Illinois is known  as a judicial hellhole by reformer activists. The Texas jurisdiction where this lawsuit was filed has the same reputation. 
  • Reply 9 of 11
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,717member
    lkrupp said:
    adefowler said:
    This must be incredibly technical. Is a jury honestly capable of reaching the correct decision?

    That’s why most of these lawsuits are filed in a single Texas county where juries are particularly hostile to corporations and assume guilt straight away. No need to understand the technicalities when you are inclined to find guilt.
    But isn't VirnetX also a corporation?  So are they just hostile to big corporations or something?  I mean, I can understand the bias when it comes to injury lawsuits (bias based on human compassion), but I don't understand it at all when it comes to one corporation vs another.  I always thought that the reason why patent trolls chose East Texas for infringement lawsuits was because of a lack of technical knowledge (if they don't understand the details, it's easier to confuse people with irrelevant details and pseudofacts).
  • Reply 10 of 11
    steviestevie Posts: 956member
    These guys are patent trolls, so they deserve to lose.  They just want to extort money from Apple.

    That's enough for me to know that Apple has done nothing wrong.  
  • Reply 11 of 11
    williamh said:
    slurpy said:
    What the fuck has VirnetX contributed to this world? What product, software, or technology have they released?

    Fucking trolls. 
    Read the article again.  Apparently they contributed a technology that costs Apple a few million per month to circumvent.  That's what the fuck they did. You seem to argue that if you invent something (and patent it) that you have no right to it unless you can release something.  Let's suppose you invent a more efficient airplane.  Can you produce airplanes?
    Read again yourself. They invented squat. Can you fly?
    edited January 2016
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