Apple Loses Copyright Case Over FaceTime, Court Orders Company To Pay VirnetX $625M

Apple has lost the copyright case over VirnetX regarding the former company's alleged use of security tech for FaceTime and iMessage. Apple has then been ordered by the court to pay VirnetX a total of $625 million.

In a report by Engadget, VirnetX first sued Apple back in 2010 over the virtual private network (VPN) usage and the former won that lawsuit. Now, VirnetX has won again with their claim that Apple has been suing their security tech for FaceTime and iMessage.

Apple will, however, appeal. The company said in a statement, "We are surprised and disappointed by the verdict and we're going to appeal. Our employees independently designed this technology over many years, and we received patents to protect this intellectual property. All four of VirnetX's patents have been found invalid by the patent office. Cases like this simply reinforce the desperate need for patent reform."

Fortune reported that the breakdown for the money being ordered by the Texas federal court to be paid to VirnetX is divided into two parts: $335 million for the findings that Apple infringed on the patents for the VPN networks and another $290 million for Apple's FaceTime. Originally, Apple was asked to be paid a total of $368.2 million in 2013 but an appeals court ordered a new trial.

Aside from the appeal, The Rakyat Post reported that Apple has also filed court papers asking United States district judge Robert Schroeder to declare a mistrial. Apple said that VirnetX's attorney misled the jury during their closing arguments. It remains unclear when Schroeder will be ruling on the request.

The patents at issue for the Apple case include U.S. Patent 7921211, which describes the way to ensure secure communications through the usage of domain names. The Patent records list the original inventor as "Science Applications International Corporation" and has been assigned to VirnetX back in 2006. The other patent includes U.S. Patent 6502135 called "Agile network protocol for secure communications with assured system availability."

There are no details yet as to when Apple will be presenting its appeal.

Tags

Apple, VirnetX, Apple infringement case, FaceTime, iMessage, VPN, security tech, $625 million

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