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Apple has been battling VirnetX in court docket for over a decade over patents, and on Thursday, the US Court docket of Appeals handed Apple a victory within the newest skirmish.
In 2010, VirnetX launched a authorized dispute by alleging quite a few situations of patent infringement associated to FaceTime, VPN, and iMessage providers. A Texas court docket fined Apple $368 million in 2012 for violating one patent, however the ruling was overturned nearly two years later.
In the newest replace, Apple satisfied the US Court docket of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to invalidate the 2 patents by upholding a choice from the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Enchantment Board, in line with Reuters.
It’d overturn the $502 million positive that Apple was ordered to pay in 2020. The corporate individually appealed that verdict, however the Federal Circuit nonetheless has to rule in that case.
“If the court docket upholds the [USPTO’s] resolution, we now have a giant downside,” VirnetX lawyer Jeff Lamken of MoloLamken mentioned on the September listening to. “I do not suppose we now have an enforceable judgment.”
The case has gone via quite a few appeals and rulings. With the Federal Circuit’s resolution on Thursday, Apple and VirnetX await a remaining resolution in Apple’s attraction of the preliminary verdict out of East Texas.
VirnetX had individually received a $302 million verdict towards Apple in 2016, which was elevated to $440 million in a while.