Apple ordered to pay $872m in patent suit

Apple has been ordered to pay patent holding company VirnetX US$625 million ($871.8 million) in damages after a US court found that its FaceTime and iMessage services continue to infringe on VirnetX patents.

In addition, a federal jury in a Texas court awarded royalties to VirnetX related to Apple's VPN On Demand service.

Apple had been required to modify its services after VirnetX won an earlier patent infringement lawsuit against the company. But the jury found that the modified services still infringe on VirnetX patents, and that the infringement was willful.

During the earlier trial in 2012, a jury awarded VirnetX US$368 million in damages. But this award was subsequently vacated by a higher court and sent back for a retrial on damages and to include Apple's alleged patent infringement while designing FaceTime.

The new US$625 million award includes these previous damages as well as new damages for Apple's alleged willful patent violation with the modified services.

VirnetX had been seeking only US$532 million in damages, but has received more than it asked for.

Apple has already filed papers seeking a mistrial alleging that VirnetX's attorneys had confused the jury during closing arguments and is expected to appeal the decision if its request is not granted.

Image courtesy of Beth Cortez-Neavel under CC .