“A U.S. District Court has upheld an earlier decision by a federal jury last year to award intellectual property and patent holding firm VirnetX more than $368.2 million, after Apple was found to have infringed patents related to the networking technology used it its FaceTime video chat service,” Zack Whittaker reports for CNET.
“Meanwhile, as first noted by Seeking Alpha, Apple must award VirnetX more than $330,000 per day until the case is settled, forcing the companies to hammer out agreements between themselves,” Whittaker reports. “The ‘royalty’ mediation settlement will require the two firms to thrash out exactly how much Apple should pay for any further use of VirnetX’s patents.”
Whittaker reports, “While Apple’s offering of FaceTime is likely not at risk for the end customer, the terms of the settlement will need to be decided upon by both firms sooner rather than later to prevent any further damages being added to the case.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: That explains those popping sounds we’ve bee hearing all morning; the champagne corks are flying at VirnetX.
Related articles:
Jury slaps Apple with $368.2 million fine over VirnetX patents – November 7, 2012
VirnetX awarded new security patent files new complaint against Apple – November 1, 2011
Double standard.
Obviously, Apple’s huge cash reserves are needed to pay others for stealing their “intellectual property”.
Does the word willful or deliberate enter your brain occasionally?
How often has Apple actually ‘stolen’ ANYTHING? Probably never, never deliberately. Meanwhile, in the pad and phone markets, who ISN’T stealing from Apple?
(And yes trolls, I can rip the decrepit old ‘Apple stole from Xerox’ yarn to shreds via the facts of the matter. Whereas the ‘Microsoft stole from Apple’ facts are a matter of public record).
We’re talking about a company, VirnetX, that is only a patent troll. They invent and make nothing, ever, except cash off the patents they BOUGHT. The exact nature of the patents they purchased isn’t evident here. We don’t know exactly how Apple’s tech and the VirnetX purchased tech match up. Often it is a question of who came up with the tech first (which was NOT VirnetX in any case) or how were the conflicting techs screwed up at our ever-incompetent US Patent Office.
IOW: We need to know more before pretending any ‘stealing’ occurred.
Is this district court in East Texas?
Of course. Be it good or bad, at least the judge makes a decision rather than dragging things out forever. Are you listening Judge Koh?
I hate Koh and the scam that Samsung was able to pull over on Apple and rip off the American people with so much more after bs outcomes like this. The harm to VirnetX wasn’t even in the ballpark of the amount awarded and the harm to Apple and American workers and the American people is orders of magnitude greater than what was awarded to Apple from the theft of the iPhone.
I’m even certain the patent violations in Apples case were far less blatant as well, but there is no justice to be Lund in the US legal system.
I’m a Singaporean, a recent (4 years) Mac and iPhone user. I find this case of Koh judge is a very ridiculous one and I really dislike Samsung to be able to rip off Apple like the way it has and has been. It’s really hurting Apple on its homeland.
Not many judges have adequate knowledge nor heart to see and judge with fairness.
Not many judges have adequate knowledge nor heart to see and judge with fairness.
Which of course is ridiculous in our modern age. There should be processes to:
A) Educate the law and judgement communities about ongoing technological changes and innovations.
B) Remove from a case any judge who’s behavior demonstrates IGNORANCE of the core subject of case, or who’s behavior DELAYS ADEQUATE JUDGEMENT of any case. Koh clearly has vehemently killed the concept of a swift and speedy trial. She should have been removed, aka BOOTED, from the Apple v Samsung trial a year ago. But no, now Koh’s on the docket for its sequel trial. OMFG what a travesty of justice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedy_Trial_Clause
Grammar police correction. Please read: “…any judge WHOSE behavior…”.
More coffee please.
Wow, 1/3 billion $ for something Apple doesn’t make money off of? This is crazy and ridiculous.
1/3 million a day?
We really need some new. younger judges, someone who is in touch with reality.
And isn’t this ‘judgement’ actually a SHOTGUN placed in VirnetX’s hands whereby that company now has the INCENTIVE to FSCK -over Apple for as-long-as-possible and/or extort outrageous fees out of Apple?
I’m all for walloping Apple over the head for actual willful crime. But where is there any actual profit to Apple over the conflicting FaceTime technology? There isn’t any! Therefore, this cruel-and-unusual-punishment is fair judgement against Apple HOW?!
IMHO this is merely more ‘Apple Bear’ behavior without merit. I have to wonder what influences have been placed upon this ‘judge’ and ‘judgement’. I don’t care if my saying so makes me appear like a fawning ‘fanboi’. Just as I am all for bashing Apple for poor behavior, I am also all for bashing our justice system for its own poor behavior. Deal with it.
Young is relative… Judge koh isn’t old…
How about smart, reasonable and fair?
korean lady wants retire one day back in home land…
must be bias
Wow, that’s a lot.. any updates yet?
Someone on another site suggests Apple should just buy the company. That may make sense especially if Google buy it and then make Apple modify Facetime. Market cap is currently 1.8BB.
Well, if it’s good enough for Apple it’s good enough for Samsung. I don’t see a problem here.
Read the above answer to your tunnel vision blabber.
Bring back ZuneTang. At least he was funny.
Also please rename yourself PCFreek since you are clearly no admirer of Apple. In fact, why the fsck are you here? You would be more profitably employed viewing porn on your cheap Asus laptop, although even that would probably strain your intellectual abilities.
=:~)
When you have the cash hoard that Apple Inc. has accumulated then you will always find the ‘trolls’ who need to share in the spoils? Maggots, vermin and parasites now make up a large portion of our so called democratic society.
So how is this better or more fair than Communism or Socialism? It’s all the same in the end. However Capitalism is more vicious, where lying, cheating and stealing are the norm.
Who’s going to Hell first?
Kinda like when George Harrison was sued for ‘My Sweet Lord’ sounding like ‘He’s So Fine’.
If you’re a big enough target, they will find you.
(Money grubbing maggots.)
I’m surprised the entire United States of Korea hasn’t instituted suit against Apple for patent infringement.
With biased U.S. and British judges, they might as well abolish the USPTO as well.
The authority of this court in East Texas needs to be relinquished. Too many baseless lawsuits (eg. NTP versus RIM) are being awarded with insane settlements.