The American Supreme Court has just delivered its verdict. She declares that she will ultimately not hear the two parties in the case between the company VirnetX and Apple. After more than 14 years of battle in court, the so-called “VirnetX patent” case is now over for Apple. The apple brand risked having to pay a fine of more than 500 million dollars.
Because in this affair, which spanned more than a decade, Apple had already been in the losing camp. In 2020, a first jury trial fined the apple brand $502 million. In order to review this court decision, Apple then appealed this decision and in March 2023, a federal appeals court rendered its verdict.
This time, the court decision went in Apple's direction. The court of appeal recognized on March 30 that VirnetX's two patents were invalid, a conclusion based on the expertise made by the American Patent and Trademark Office.
VirnetX: the very definition of a patent troll
However, it is precisely these two patents which are the keystone of this whole affair. Indeed, VirnetX is a company described asa "patent troll". In other words, the company files hundreds and hundreds of patents for inventions in various fields, then waits for a company to use them.
Once the proprietary technology is used, as was the case with Apple and its user data protection system, VirnetX lawyers come into play and launch legal proceedings. These attacks aim to condemn the company using the patents, allowing VirnetX to recoverjuicy damages.
This is not the first time that VirnetX has sued Apple. In a previous lawsuit, the company had already managed to win $440 million in damages for Apple's use of proprietary technology in securing video calls via FaceTime. This fine has not been called into question and VirnetX's patents are still valid.
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By : Keleops AG
