The US Supreme Court today rebuffed Apple’s appeal of a $440 million USD judgment in a nine-year-long patent battle against VirnetX.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple argued that the $439 million USD judgment from the first of two patent cases was “grossly excessive” and should be tossed because the patents involved were found invalid by the Patent and Trademark Office.
VirnetX, a Nevada company with less than $2 million USD in annual revenue, has waged a decade-long fight to collect royalties from Apple for secure communications technology used in FaceTime and virtual private network programs on devices including the iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers, explains the report.
Apple in a court filing called the Federal Circuit’s refusal to entertain its demands “legally wrong and grossly unfair.” The company also said the lower courts impermissibly allowed VirnetX to request damages far beyond the value of the patented invention.
VirnetX told the Supreme Court justices: “The entire damages award … remains supported by claims that a jury — and the Federal Circuit — found valid years ago and that have not been canceled since.”
The justices rejected Apple’s appeal in the long-running case in which a federal jury in 2016 found that Apple had infringed VirnetX’s patents and awarded $302 million. A judge later increased that amount to $439.7 million including interest and other costs.
