US judge: $625 million Apple patent case must be re-opened

A federal judge has ruled on appeal that the imposed amount of $ 625 million, converted about 560 million euros, that Apple had to pay VirnetX for infringing patents, does not have to be paid and that the case should be dismissed.

As a result of the ruling, VirnetX’s stock promptly plummeted by 44 percent. The reason for invalidating the earlier judgment is that the judge found it “unfair” that two VirnetX lawsuits were combined into a single case, Reuters writes. Both things have to be done separately. The first case is on September 26.

The February case involved several patents that Apple claims VirnetX is infringing by using them in Apple’s VPN on Demand, FaceTime and iMessage features. The central theme of the patents is the establishment of secure communication and networks.

VirnetX is a patent holder who gets all his income from owning patents. VirnetX CEO Kendall Larsen says he is ‘disappointed’. VirnetX has won several cases in the past. The patent troll won a lawsuit against Microsoft that netted the company $200 million through a settlement.

In a previous lawsuit against Apple in 2012, VirnetX demanded $368 million plus one percent of iPhone and iPad sales in connection with the Always feature. It won the case, but it was dismissed on appeal in 2013.