Apple has lost its appeal against VirnetX over a patent infringement suit involving iMessage and FaceTime services

Back in February, tech giant Apple was ordered by a United States court judge to pay $625 million to VirnetX. Apple appealed the decision, claiming that the patents that were brought by VirnetX to court were not valid. However, on Friday, Apple's appeal was repealed and the company was told to pay more than $302 million in damages.

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Apple has yet to provide a comment about the recent court judgment. On the other hand, court documents revealed that Apple will also face another proceeding to determine whether the company willfully infringed the patents in question, a move that could lead to yet additional damages to pay. Apple is also facing a second lawsuit from VirnetX regarding newer versions of the former's security features.

According to Tech Crunch, VirnetX is widely regarded in the tech community as a patent troll. The company is notorious for bringing major tech companies to court over patent licensing and infringement courts. It is also important to note that majority of VirnetX's revenue stream comes from these lawsuits.

VirnetX and Apple's legal tussle stems way back to 2010 when the former filed a lawsuit against the iPhone maker claiming patent infringement over four security patents, including Virtual Private Networks. The latest lawsuit was filed on Eastern Texas Court, a place with a known history of favoring plaintiffs when it comes to patent infringement cases.

In 2013, Nevada-based VirnetX won a lawsuit filed against Apple, wherein a US court ordered Apple to pay $368 million. In response, Apple changed its services, but VirnetX came back with another lawsuit claiming that the changes were not sufficient enough.

Aside from Apple, VirnetX has successfully took major tech companies to court including Avaya, Cisco and Siemens.

Tagsapple, Patent, patent-infringement, patent lawsuit, virnetx, virnetx patent, virnetx patent lawsuit