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Patent Troll VirnetX Wants To Ban FaceTime and iMessage, Increase Damages Award By $190M (9to5mac.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the more-more-more dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Earlier this year, patent troll VirnetX won a court battle with Apple to the tune of $625 million. Now, the company wants to increase the damages award by $190 million. Law360 reports: "At a post-trial hearing Wednesday, Texas technology company VirnetX argued that although an injunction blocking Apple's popular video chatting and messaging features, along with a virtual private network on demand feature, may seem like a harsh remedy, it is necessary because of the irreparable harm Apple's infringement caused the company. VirnetX also asked the court to increase the jury's damages award by at least $190 million, arguing that Apple has been the 'poster child' for unreasonable litigation tactics." VirnetX also wants the court to block FaceTime and iMessage entirely. "Meanwhile, Apple argued that in light of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decisions rejecting the four patents-in-suit, an injunction would be inappropriate, as would any ongoing royalty based on FaceTime, iMessage and virtual private network on demand features. The tech giant also sought a mistrial based on a purportedly inappropriate argument to the jury and argued that the company is entitled to a judgment of non infringement, despite the jury verdict, based on VirnetX's allegedly insufficient evidence," reports Law360.

4 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Good Grief... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When are legitimate IP and patent holders going to band together and take out the courts in Texas? Sure, we all have different ideas about "Intellectual Property" and patents, but this has to stop. The courts in Texas are a money making enterprise that should be taken down with the RICO Act. It's a State of Texas sponsored SCAM. The "big players" like Apple and Microsoft (I know, I know...) need to "pony up" and kill this shit off.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re:Good Grief... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The patents were bought from SAIC, so that's not relevant to this case.

      To rephrase that for the unacquainted:

      The patents were bought from the DIA by a CIA patent troll front.

      SAIC is one of the top 10 defense contractors. You remember Q from James Bond? His American counterpart is an employee of SAIC. This is all about encryption and decentralized chat: who gets to use them, and who does not get to use them. You do not get to use them. If you think this is just about patent trolling, you don't know the players.

    2. Re:Good Grief... by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 4, Interesting

      SAIC are pretty scummy. They found out at one point that they were using some of our GPL'd software in a proprietary product. We said "yeah, mistakes happen, make a small payment (a few $K) to support an open-source initiative and we'll carve out a license exemption for your use case, no big deal". They then spent probably about ten times as much with lawyers arguing that their interpretation of the GPL meant they could go ahead and use it without open-sourcing anything and without needing a license exemption. In the end we just dropped the matter, it wasn't worth the hassle.

  2. I'm really glad because... by coofercat · · Score: 3, Funny

    My VirnetX phone has literally been useless since Apple put Facetime on their phones. I haven't had a single video call since that day. I was gonna switch to an Apple or maybe an Android, but now I'm sure VirnetX will re-start development of an upgrade phone and I'll be back on easy streets once again.