VirnetX: hey, court, don’t lessen the $439 million patent fine against Apple

VirnetX has urged the full Federal Circuit not to consider lessening a $439 million patent infringement verdict against Apple, claiming the tech giant is only asking for review in a bid to delay the case while trying to invalidate the network security patents through another proceeding, reports Law360.

This is the latest battle between VirnetX and Apple. Last April a jury ruled that the latter infringed four patents of the former. In January 2014 VirnetX, an Internet security software and technology company (and, by most considerations, 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, continue to 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.