US Supreme Court declines VirnetX's $502.8 million jury verdict against Apple

On February 20, the US Supreme Court declined to hear patent-licensing company VirnetX’s bid to revive a jury verdict worth $ 502.8 million, which it had won against Apple. This was with regards to its dispute over internet-security patents.

The patent-licensing company had challenged the US Patent and Trademark’s Office’s decision to invalidate its patents.

There was a 14 year long court battle between Apple and VirnetX over the latter’s internet-security patents which included several trials and appeals, stated a media report.

In 2020, VirnetX was to get $502.8 million after a separate jury had determined that Apple’s iPhones and iPads infringed patents that were associated with virtual private networks.

Apple had waited to file its petitions, based on which the board had rejected the tech giant’s requests to invalidate the patents under the IPR (Inter Partes Review) process. IPR is often used by tech companies who have been slapped or have been targeted by patent lawsuits to contest the patents they have been accused of infringing, stated a report.

VirnetX had previously won $440 million from Apple, based on a 2016 verdict. It was based on Apple using its security technology in features like FaceTime video calls.

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