VirnetX
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Apple ordered to pay VirnetX $503 million for VPN patent lawsuit
A jury in Tyler, Texas has ruled that Apple has to pay VirnetX $502.8 million in royalties for VPN on Demand, the iOS feature that lets users configure their devices to automatically start or stop a VPN connection.
Apple will pay $18 million to settle broken FaceTime suit
Apple has agreed to pay $18 million to settle a case accusing the company of intentionally breaking FaceTime on iOS 6.
Apple ordered to pay $500 million in iMessage patent suit
A federal jury in Eastern Texas has just ordered Apple to pay VirnetX, a company widely regarded as a patent troll, $502.6 million in damages. It's the latest development in a legal battle that started way back in 2010 when VirnetX filed a lawsuit against the tech giant, accusing it of infringing on its intellectual properties. VirnetX claims that FaceTime, iMessage and VPN on Demand violate four of its patents related to secure communications. "The evidence was clear," VirnetX chief Kendall Larsen said after the court's decision was announced. "Tell the truth and you don't have to worry about anything."
Apple ordered to pay $440 million to FaceTime patent troll
VirnetX's seemingly endless FaceTime patent lawsuit against Apple is winding down... sort of. An Eastern District of Texas court has denied all of Apple's motions to end the case in a non-infringement ruling or retrial, leaving the tech giant with a final judgment that orders it to pay VirnetX $439.7 million. That's much more than the $302.4 million Apple was told to pay last year. VirnetX, widely considered a patent troll, is unsurprisingly "elated" at having won its third jury battle against Apple. However, it can't really rest on its laurels -- that judgment isn't as final as it seems at first blush.
Apple accused of intentionally breaking FaceTime on iOS 6
We don't normally cover individual lawsuits against corporations because, hey, they make a lot of money, and everyone wants a slice. But the circumstances around this one are sufficiently controversial that we've made an exception. A woman from California has filed a claim against Apple saying that the company intentionally broke FaceTime on iOS 6 to force users to upgrade to iOS 7.
Apple loses FaceTime patent retrial, ordered to pay $302.4 million
In the continuing saga of Apple vs. VirnetX, Reuters reports that a federal jury in the Eastern District of Texas has ruled in favor of VirnetX, ordering Apple to pay $302.4 million in damages. This particular case has been going on since 2010, and in the last verdict, a jury ruled Apple owed more than $600 million to the "non-practicing entity (read: patent troll) over technology used in FaceTime. However, in August the appeals court threw that ruling out, saying jurors may have been confused by references to the first iteration of this case.
Apple won't have to pay a patent troll $625 million after all
Patent troll VirnetX has won multiple patent lawsuits against Apple, including a recent $625 million judgement over FaceTime and VPN tech. However, it appears it overplayed its past success during that trial. After Apple appealed, federal Judge Robert Schroeder threw out the judgement and demanded a retrial. The reason? VirnetX inappropriately mentioned the previous verdict, possibly prejudicing the jury against Apple.
Apple ordered to pay $625 million in FaceTime patent lawsuit
VirnetX has been a thorn in Apple's side (and a good chunk of the tech industry) for the better part of this decade. It first sued Apple in 2010 over the alleged use of virtual private network (VPN) patents in FaceTime video chats, and has been successful enough in court to wring hundreds of millions of dollars out of the folks in Cupertino. And today, it's striking again: a court has ordered Apple to pay $625 million dollars for purportedly using VirnetX's security tech in both FaceTime and iMessage. That's actually more than the $532 million VirnetX had wanted, and a huge windfall for a company that has little business outside of lawsuits (aka a patent troll).
Meet the company that is dangerously close to collecting 1% of Apple's iPhone and iPad revenue
If you've never heard the name VirnetX that's OK, since the company doesn't really make anything you use on a daily basis, but Apple knows the name all too well. The two companies have been entangled in a long legal battle over a handful of patents applying to Apple products like FaceTime, and you guessed it, VirnetX is out for cash and not much else. Apple is no stranger to patent trolling, but where so many have failed, VirnetX has succeeded, and is creeping ever closer to scoring a huge payday off of Apple's iPhone and iPad sales. VirnetX bills itself as an "end-user-focused company," that values integrity and security above all else. It does this -- it seems -- by creating licensing agreements to rake in cash and waging legal wars against anyone who it feels has infringed upon its holdings. The company has had some bad beats in its fight against other large tech companies, including losing its infringement case against Cisco in March of 2013. You can see the effect this ruling had on the company's stock price (it's the massive drop which cut its value in half). But VirnetX is having much better luck against Apple. I'll save you most of the complicated details regarding the case and try to put it in simpler terms: VirnetX owns several patents on network protocols which the company argues are being used by Apple without royalties. In 2013, a jury agreed and ordered Apple to pay $368 million. Apple then did some behind-the-scenes tweaking to try to skirt the patents, but earlier this year a judge determined Apple was still infringing and ordered that Apple fork over an ongoing royalty of 0.98% of iPhone and iPad revenue. Running out of options, Apple then leaned on RPX, a company that buys up patents to aid large companies in defense of patent trolls, for help. RPX, operating as an entity separate from Apple, filed petitions to have the patents reviewed and hopefully invalidated as they apply to the lawsuit. The U.S. patent office found that Apple was really the one pulling the strings on RPX's request and, just last week, had it thrown out entirely. VirnetX hailed this as justice being served. This not only makes Apple look a bit desperate, but it also puts VirnetX one big step closer to collecting on nearly 1% of the sales of Apple's most popular devices. Apple's next move is unclear, as the company has been barred from filing additional reviews on the grounds that it already had the opportunity to make its case, and with one of the biggest names in anti-patent-trolling, RPX, also dismissed, VirnetX is clearly winning this fight.
Apple changes its position on iOS VPN changes
Earlier this month, Apple posted a support document on its website with details on how settings would change for iOS users connecting to virtual private networks (VPNs). Now the company has done an about-face, updating the document to inform the public that the changes will not happen. The changes were made following a patent infringement lawsuit by VirnetX against Apple in which Apple was found to have violated a patent through the design of the popular FaceTime software. That loss in court cost Apple US$368 million, and the company made a minor change in the iOS VPN On Demand feature as a result. As Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica explains, "The change was going to be relatively minor-devices with VPN On Demand configured to 'always' would instead behave as if they were set up to only establish a connection as needed." The latest document from Apple appears to indicate that it has come to an agreement with VirnetX and won't need to issue a software update to make the VPN changes. The document states that "Apple no longer plans to change the behavior of the VPN On Demand feature of iOS 6.1 for devices that have already been shipped. The 'Always' option will continue to work as it currently does on these devices."
Apple forced to change VPN On Demand for iOS due to lawsuit from VirnetX
Apple has announced changes to their VPN on Demand service for iOS devices following a lawsuit by VirnetX. The changes will only effect devices using iOS 6.1 or later. The move come on the heels of a US$368 million ruling against Apple, where a federal jury found the company had violated VirnetX patents. The lawsuit stems from Apple's FaceTime software, arguably among their most popular features. The same day the $368 million decision was passed, VirnetX filed another lawsuit against Apple, this time aiming for a judgment that includes products that were not released when the original case was filed. Apple has released the following explanation of the changes via their support network. Devices using iOS 6.1 and later with VPN On Demand configured to "Always" will behave as if they were configured with the "Establish if needed" option. The device will establish a VPN On Demand connection only if it is unable to resolve the DNS name of the host it is trying to reach. This change will be distributed in an update later this month. If the name of a host can be resolved without a VPN connection, you may see one of the following behaviors: If the host is a web server that presents different content to internal and external users, the VPN On Demand connection will not be established and you will see the external content. If the host is a web or mail server that has a name that can be resolved externally but cannot be contacted externally, the VPN On Demand connection will not be established and you will not be able to connect to the server. If you are using a public DNS service that provides an alternative IP address for hosts that it cannot resolve, the VPN On Demand connection will not be established and you will not be able to connect to the server. If you are using a VPN configuration that includes wildcard entries (such as *.com) that match top-level domains that are publicly accessible, the VPN On Demand connection will not be established when you contact hosts in those domains.
Apple ordered to pay VirnetX $363K daily in patent dispute
Here's one way to force two warring companies to hash things out. A federal judge has ordered Apple to cough up more than US$360,000 daily to VirnetX until the two can come to an agreement on the former licensing four of the latter's patents. The penalties stem from a verdict delivered in November of 2012 which found that Apple's FaceTime and iMessage infringed on four of VirnetX's patents. A jury in Texas awarded VirnetX $368.2 million in damages, and Apple can still appeal that verdict. US Circuit Judge Leonard Davis has ordered Apple to pay $330,000 in damages and $33,000 in interest to VirnetX daily for the next 45 days, or more than $16 million in total, in an effort to get the two companies to the bargaining table. Additionally, Davis is making the companies meet with a mediator in an effort to help them reach a licensing deal. If a deal can't be ironed out before the 45-day period ends, VirnetX will be able to seek a sales ban on devices it believes are in violation of its patents, which originally included the iPhone 4 and first-generation iPad.
