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Patent troll VirnetX beats Apple again, awarded $302M in FaceTime damages

Patent holder will seek millions more over whether Apple willfully infringed.

VirnetX is litigating the road to riches in a patent lawsuit against Apple.
Enlarge / VirnetX is litigating the road to riches in a patent lawsuit against Apple.
Bloomberg via Getty Images

An East Texas jury concluded late Friday that Apple must pay a patent troll $302.4 million in damages for infringing two patents connected to Apple's FaceTime communication application.

The verdict is the third in the long-running case in which two earlier verdicts were overturned—one on appeal and the other by the Tyler, Texas federal judge presiding over the 6-year-long litigation.

The latest outcome is certain to renew the same legal arguments that were made in the earlier cases: Apple, for one, has maintained all along that the evidence doesn't support infringement. VirnetX, as it did in the past and is now doing, is seeking more damages for what it says is "willful" infringement on Apple's part. What's more, in the previous litigation, the Nevada patent-holding company had asked the judge to shutter the Apple service at issue. Apple has maintained that such a demand was made "So that it can be used to extract a massive licensing fee."

The case began with four of VirnetX's patents (1, 2, 3, 4), which had originated at a company called Science Applications International Corporation, or SAIC. VirnetX has been saying for years that it plans to market various products, but its income comes from licensing patents.

The latest verdict (PDF) had the jury consider only the amount of damages in the "504 patent" and the "211 patent." Two months ago, US District Judge Robert Schroeder ordered a new trial and wiped out the previous $625.6 million in damages that a different jury concluded Apple owed. Schroeder said that the complex trial, as well as repeated references to an earlier verdict against Apple that was overturned on appeal, created "potential for juror confusion" and unfairly prejudiced Apple.

The next stage of the case is where VirnetX will seek damages for willful infringement. In the last case, the company sought $190 million. No hearing date has been set.

Channel Ars Technica