Apple must now pay a fortune for violating patents

A judge ruled that iMessage, FaceTime and other signature software violates patents held by another company;
(CNNMoney) - A judge ruled that Apple must pay damages of $ 626 million after determining that iMessage, FaceTime and other software from Apple violated patents of another company.

In a case that has been in the courts since 2012, VirnetX accused Apple of violating four of its patents, three of which are included in the new ruling, which mostly consist of methods to communicate in real time on the Internet.

It is considered that VirnetX is a "patent troll" because it is a company that owns patents that does not manufacture anything. Only 14 employees and offices rented for $ 5,000 a month. The company makes money by granting patent rights to other companies ... suing companies that, in their opinion, have infringed their intellectual property.

VirnetX owns about 80 patents, including four in which programs were based Apple. VirnetX bought them from a company called Science Applications International Corporation.

In 2012, a jury found that Apple had infringed the same patent and ordered the company to pay $ 368 million to VirnetX. Apple appealed and won on a technicality: VirnetX failed to demonstrate that consumers were buying iPads and other devices from software patents VirnetX violated.

The appeals court overturned the damages and sent the case to the District Court of Texas to be re-evaluated.

However, Apple failed exactly what I wanted. The new jury ruled Wednesday 3 February that Apple owed even more money to VirnetX because it violated "intentionally" patents of the company.

The stock price doubled VirnetX before the markets opened.

Apple subjected to review their software iMessage, FaceTime and VPN to verify that do not cover anything contained in patents VirnetX.

VirnetX has had mixed results in their previous patent claims. He reached an agreement with Microsoft for 200 million dollars (3,600 million) and filed another lawsuit against the company in 2015. However, he lost the lawsuit he filed against Cisco that year.

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