Apple Ordered to Pay $502.8 Million for Patent Violations
Apple is back in hot water. After battling in court for 10 years, the tech giant has been ordered to pay $502.8 million in a lawsuit with VirnetX, an internet security software company, for patent infringements.
A jury in Texas has ruled that Apple has to pay the Nevada-based company for VPN on Demand, a feature that lets iOS users access a VPN connection, Bloomberg reports. In the decade-long legal battle, VirnetX argued that Apple’s VPN on Demand and FaceTime use its technology.
The initial amount VirnetX asked for was $700 million, but Apple appealed to void the amount, insisting instead that it only owed $113 million. This year, the jury ruled $502.8 million in royalties as the amount. On top of this, Apple has also been ordered to give $450 million to VirnetX from a separate lawsuit from a few months ago.
Apple has issued a statement saying it plans to appeal the decision: “This case has been going on for over a decade, with patents that are unrelated to the core operations of our products and have been found to be invalid by the patent office. Cases like this only serve to stifle innovation and harm consumers.”