A patent licensing firm named VirnetX today won a $368.2 million judgment against Apple, whose FaceTime technology was found to infringe patents covering virtual private network technology.
The federal jury’s ruling stems from a lawsuit filed in US District Court in Eastern Texas, a court that is notoriously friendly to patent holders. VirnetX asserted four patents covering "the use of a domain-name service to set up virtual private networks," saying they were infringed by "Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad as well as Mac computers that use the FaceTime function," according to Bloomberg’s account of the decision.
VirnetX, which makes most of its money licensing patents, said Apple "refused to pay fair value" for the patents. With a favorable verdict in tow, VirnetX lawyer Doug Cawley said the company will seek a court order preventing Apple from continuing to use the patented technology, according to Bloomberg.
We’ve asked Apple for comment. Presumably, the company will appeal. At trial, Apple argued that VirnetX’s patents are invalid and that FaceTime uses different technology than what is covered in the patents.
VirnetX initially sought $708 million in damages from Apple. The company previously won a $200 million settlement from Microsoft in 2010, and has similar lawsuits pending against Cisco, Avaya, and Siemens. Those cases are scheduled to reach trial in March.
VirnetX was formed by former employees of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), with its patents stemming "from work performed by SAIC… for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to develop secure communications," Bloomberg reported.