In a patent licensing infringement lawsuit filed against Apple by VirnetX Holding Corp, a jury in Texas has ruled in favor of VirnetX Holding Corp. Apple has been court ordered to pay US$625 million to VirnetX in damages.
The jurors decided that not only had Apple infringed on VirnetX Holding Corporation's patents, it had done so willfully.
VirnetX fild against Apple for using the patent licensing company's Internet security technology without their permission in Apple's FaceTime and iMessage features, and in its VPN on Demand.
The damages awarded to VirnetX were actually more than the US$532 million VirnetX had demanded before the trial began on Jan. 25 in Tyler, Texas.
Apple is doing really well; it reported in Januray that as of the fourth quarter its cash pile has gone up to US$216 billion. That didn't stop Apple from promising to appeal, however. "We are surprised and disappointed by the verdict," the company was reported to have said by Fortune. "Cases like this simply reinforce the desperate need for patent reform."
Apple also filed papers in court on Wednesday, asking asking U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder to declare a mistrial. It claimed that the jury had been misled by VirnetX's attorneys during closing arguments. The date for the Judge's ruling is yet unknown.
VirnetX's lawyer Jason Cassady said in a statement that the jury had only confirmed something they had been saying all this time: that Apple had been infringing technology that was patented by VirnetX for years now.
VirnetX makes most of its revenue from licensing patents. This is not the first time Nevada-based company is suing Apple: Apple first got sued by them in 2010 over their use of secure networks (VPNs) and secure communications links in FaceTime, which is Apple's video conferencing app.
Then they filed another suit against Apple in November of 2012, when a jury found Apple guilty of infringement of four VirnetX patents with its its iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad products - and its Mac computers. VirnetX was awarded US$368.2 million in damages.
Apple maintains that the technology has been independently designed by Apple over a course of many years.
