Apple Must Pay $302M To VirnetX After Losing FaceTime Patent Retrial

After roughly six years of courtroom battles, a federal jury in Texas ruled that Apple had in fact infringed on patents held by VirnetX, a non-practicing entity, and ordered the Cupertino company to pay $302.4 million in damages. While Apple's ongoing struggles with VirnetX began in 2010, this latest retrial ruled that the company's FaceTime platform used the latter's patented internet security technology without gaining permission.

Despite the argument that VirnetX could be considered little more than a patent troll, Apple has continually come up on the losing side in court. An initial ruling in 2012 ordered Apple to pay $368 million after using the patented virtual private networking tech in the iPhone 4S, but that was thrown out by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in September 2015.

Then a retrial was held in February of this year, combining two actions brought by VirnetX, and there a jury ruled that Apple needed to pay $625 million. But that ruling was voided as well, with a judge saying that the trial was unfair due to the jury being confused by repeated references to the previous case. Thus another retrial was ordered, bringing us to today.

There's no doubt that VirnetX intentionally brought its case against Apple to the East Texas Federal District Court, which is known to rule in favor of patent holders. In addition, Apple's struggles with VirnetX are likely far from over, as they've recently filed a new suit over the use of security features in iOS's iMessage app.

SOURCE Reuters