Apple asks Federal Court to dismiss VirnetX’s $600 million jury award

Apple has urged the Federal Circuit to toss a nearly $600 million judgment that VirnetX secured against the tech giant, arguing that the asserted claims of all the patents in the case have been invalidated by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

In January 2014, VirnetX, considered by many (including me) to be a “patent troll,”  filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas seeking to supplement its infringement contentions against Apple, the defendant in a patent infringement lawsuit. The motion alleged that Apple products, including products containing the redesigned VPN On Demand and Per App VPN features implemented in Apple’s iOS 7, infringe VirnetX’s patented inventions. 

By the way, a patent troll is an individual or an organization that purchases and holds patents for unscrupulous purposes such as stifling competition or launching patent infringement suits. In legal terms, a patent troll is a type of non-practicing entity: someone who holds a patent but is not involved in the design or manufacture of any product or process associated with that patent.