Last month, we reported that the Apple lost a judicial appeal (opened in 2016) against the VirnetX about the amount of the fine that should be paid to the online security company for infringing some of its patents, most related to technologies used by the Cupertino giant in VPN networks and FaceTime.
After failing to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals that it should not pay such a high price for patent violations, Apple adopted a new strategy in an attempt to change that outcome. In that sense, instead of appealing to a higher court, she is asking the court to reconsider the amount of the fine. $ 440 million.
According to Law360, Apple asked the appeals court to reassess the verdict issued last month by the Eastern Texas District Court panel. There is no information on whether the court accepted Apple’s request or not, but the fact is that the decision is, for now, suspended.
It looks like the (already extensive) legal battle between Apple and VirnetX will gain new chapters soon. We’ll see.
Another patent infringement process
If the above dispute were not enough, a group of companies under the name Optis Wireless Technology, LLC filed a lawsuit against Apple in the East Texas District Court (widely used by patent trolls, given the state’s favorable laws), accusing the Cupertino giant of infringing seven technology-related patents LTE – better known here in Brazil, as 4G.
The lawsuit report points out that all Apple products supporting LTE technology – including several models of iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch – have infringed the patents in question. It is known that the company is not the inventor of these technologies and that many of them were acquired from Ericsson, Samsung, LG and Panasonic.
The accuser said she contacted Apple several times until January 6, 2017 to try to license her patents with the company. She also reported having met with Apple representatives on several occasions, but at no time did the two companies reach an agreement.
Optis Wireless Technology demanded a jury trial and a fine (unspecified) for “recovering damages in the form of royalties reasonable ”. Given the circumstances of this process, it is not wrong to say that the company that is processing the Apple is an patent troll, since it does not manufacture any products and aims to earn on intellectual licenses acquired from other companies.
via AppleInsider, MacRumors
