The legal battle was fought over Apple’s usage of FaceTime and iMessage which according to VirnetX infringed upon patents.
After fighting an eight-year-long legal battle, Apple has been reportedly ordered to pay a fine of USD 502.6 million to a patent troll VirnetX by a federal court in Texas. The legal battle was fought over Apple’s usage of FaceTime and iMessage which, according to VirnetX, infringed upon patents.
The two companies had been engaged in a bitter legal battle since 2010 when VirnetX claimed features such as FaceTime, VPN on Demand and iMessage present on Apple’s devices infringe multiple secure communications patents. Apple had refuted the claims.
The battle, which involved a number of lawsuits and appeals, with the latest one coming from Apple following it being ordered to pay USD 439.7 million back in October 2017.
According to Kendall Larsen, CEO of VirnetX, the USD 502.6 million fine imposed on Apple — a company which has sold more than 400 million devices so far and has generated USD 20 billion profit in the first quarter of this year alone — was ‘fair’.
"The evidence was clear," Larsen was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. "Tell the truth and you don’t have to worry about anything."
However, VirnetX’s joy may be short-lived as The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has declared the patents invalid which may result in the ruling to be struck down soon.
VirnetX, in a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, has mentioned the company’s business model revolves around “portfolio of intellectual property is the foundation of our business model".
The Zephyr Cove, a Nevada-based company, is a patent troll company which basically generates revenues by suing companies which develop and sell products which infringe upon hard-to-understand patents and loosely-interpreted intellectual property regulations.
According to Bloomberg, the company’s stock rose about 44 per cent after the court ruled in its favour.