(Tyler, Texas – October 4, 2016) – VirnetX won again against Apple. A jury calculated that technology giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) owes more than $302 million in royalties to Nevada-based VirnetX Holding Corp. (NYSE: VHC) for infringing internet security patents owned by VirnetX. Jurors in the Tyler, Texas, courtroom of Judge Robert W. Schroeder III delivered the verdict in favor of VirnetX on Sept. 30 after one week of trial. The case is VirnetX Inc., et al. v. Apple Inc., No. 6:10-CV-417, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
If this sounds familiar, a 2012 jury calculated that Apple owned VirnetX $368M for four different technologies related to networking in 2012. Two years later, the US CAFC upheld the jury’s findings on two of the patents and found all four patents to be “not invalid.” In a retrial before Judge Schroeder earlier this year, Apple got slapped down to the tune of $625 million for VirnetX when jurors determined that Apple infringed those same four patents! That was the fourth-largest jury verdict in the nation this year. Alas, that large amount was vacated by the court, who then split the case into two, the first of which became the $302 million verdict above. But we’re always happy when the real inventor wins, whichever side that is, and here it looks like the good guy is winning.
“This verdict is the third time in a row that a jury has told Apple that it must pay for infringing VirnetX’s patents,” said Jason Cassady of Caldwell Cassady & Curry, who represented VirnetX. “It is clear that Apple used our client’s intellectual property without permission in order to sell hundreds of millions of devices, which is why the jury ruled the way it did.”
