VirnetX Holding Corp. received a positive court ruling Wednesday, as the company disclosed that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has denied Apple’s motion for relief from a judgment in the VirnetX v. Apple patent case.
The case dates back to 2010 when Nevada-based VirnetX filed suit in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas accusing Cupertino, California-based Apple of infringing four patents for secure networks, known as virtual private networks, and secure communications links. VirnetX said Apple infringed with its FaceTime and VPN on Demand features in products such as the iPhone and iPad.
The ruling means Apple cannot recover the roughly $440 million it paid VirnetX in damages for using its internet security technology without permission in features such as FaceTime video calling.
In February, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Apple’s appeal of a 2016 federal court verdict that hit the iPhone maker with a $302 million penalty in the patent infringement case. The amount rose to $439.7 million as the case dragged on. The patents have since been invalidated.
Apple had in the past argued that the verdict and the damages were unfair, saying the amount awarded to VirnetX was well above the actual value of the technology at issue.
MacDailyNews Take: Does the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ever get tired of being a joke?
If you had ever been been in that part of Texas, you wouldn’t ask.
https://www.dailysentinel.com/coronavirus/article_dc8baad6-783d-5f02-abd0-49a97565291c.html
Oh for fs sake, buy the fking company. The market cap is 350MM. Buy it and shut it down. It’s costing Apple more by continuing this litigation than it would just to buy it.
It appears as though Apple has already paid the company. Buying VirnetX now makes no sense.
What really makes no sense to me is the courts saying that Apple cannot get any of that money back even though the patents for which VirnetX got the money have been invalidated. If the cause of action goes away, then the award (at least the vast majority of it) should go away too.
Once agina, Apple’s crack team of lawyers for the win! (the most extreme sarcasm applies)
There are many great things about Apple. There are a few substandard things that should be fixed. However, there is one horrifically bad part about Apple that has dragged on forwell over three decades, and that is Apple’s legal team. They are worse than useless.
The Apple legal team is in trouble before a case even starts, in today’s climate of free money you can copy anything want ala Google with Java or Samsung in another case involving Apple.
The freeloading climate (mindset) today is why Apple will lose when it comes to any case involving the app store.
You realize the trial was over Apple freeloading (infringing) VirnetX patents. Right?
You mean where the VirnetX patents were invalidated, but VirnetX still gets to keep the money.
Try to keep up… Took me 2 minutes.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/07/09/virnetx-reverses-ruling-invalidating-patents-used-against-apple
“Apple hires smaller company lawyers from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,…” Apple typically hires promising Bolt Hall grads to turn its court cases litigated in the Eastern District of Texas into possible wins. LOL