Following a 10 year lawsuit, tech giant, Apple has recently lost its patent infringement lawsuit against VirnetX and has been ordered by the court to pay the company $502.8 million USD. VirnetX, is a Nevada-based internet security company that filed the lawsuit roughly a decade ago.
According to Bloomberg, VirnetX argued that its technology was used by Apple in its FaceTime App, as well as its VPN on Demand functions. VPN on Demand allows users to have access to a VPN on iOS devices. The original asking amount from VirnetX to apple was $700 million to which Apple demanded the amount be brought down to $113 million.
In the end, a jury came to the decision that Apple owed $502.8 million in royalties to VirnetX. That being in addition to the $450 million Apple has been ordered to give VirnetX as a result of a separate lawsuit a few months ago. Apple, is (naturally) seeking to appeal the court decision stating “This case has been going on for over a decade, with patents that are unrelated to the core operations of our products and have been found to be invalid by the patent office. Cases like this only serve to stifle innovation and harm consumers.”