The US District Court ruled that Apple be mandated to pay $625
million to VirnetX, a patent troll based out of Nevada. This
is the second time in a short 5 year span that patent troll VirnetX is suing
Apple for infringement. The four patents that Apple Infringed on are
- U.S.
Patent #6,502,135
- U.S.
Patent #7,418,504
- U.S.
Patent #7,490,151
- U.S.
Patent #7,921,211
These patents are in the domain of internet
security and are popularly used in VPN On-Demand, Imessage, and Facetime.
The $625 million that Apple owes includes royalties from a 2012 case in which
VirnetX sued for patent infringement. Caldwell Cassady & Curry represents
VirnetX, and collects a healthy legal fee for a victory of this magnitude. They
also represented them in the 2012 suits. Apple’s in house legal counsel
represents them, and includes many legal experts in the area of patent
infringement. Apple executives are furious with the ruling and calling for
serious patent reform. Patent trolls continue to attack large technology
corporations because it is an extremely profitable endeavor. In order to end
patent trolling, we need to reform patent law to make it less opportune for
companies like VirnetX.
Hi Ryan,
ReplyDeleteThank you for a detailed report on the case. I really enjoyed reading this because you provided a thorough review of the patents involved in this case. I wish you would expand more on patent trolls. For example, including an example of another one would be good for an cross-examination of this case.