A US court has asked Apple to pay $502.6 million in a patent suit to the intellectual property hoarder VirnetX – widely known as "patent troll".
According to a report in Engadget on Wednesday, the court in Eastern Texas issued the order after VirnetX filed a lawsuit against the tech giant accusing it of infringing its intellectual properties.
The original suit was filed in 2010 by VirnetX, which back then had claimed that Apple features like FaceTime, iMessage and VPN on Demand violated four of its patents.
The case saw various revisions being made to the penalty that Apple was liable to pay for its patent infringement. In 2016, it was first ordered to pay $625 million which was quickly scraped off by federal Judge Robert Schroeder.
The evidence was clear. Tell the truth and you don’t have to worry about anything.Kendall Larsen, Chief, VirnetX
Later, a federal jury in Texas decided that Apple was guilty and asked the Cupertino-based giant to pay a penalty of $302 million (half of what was ordered previously).
Reports suggest that one of the reason VirnetX has managed to win its case against Apple is because of the case being fought in Eastern Texas, a region which is notoriously known for allegedly favouring patent trolls.
Apple is no stranger to high-profile patent cases. The company has had to tackle such cases often.
But knowing Apple, it’s hard to see the company yield to the court’s order. In fact, a full-blown rebuttal could be expected from the firm.
In 2016, a Florida-based businessman has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against Apple, alleging that that he designed the look of the iPhone even before Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone to the world back in 2007. He alleged that even the iPad and iPod were made by stealing his designs.
Even last year, Apple had to pay over $2 billion in cash for settlement over patent matters with Nokia.
(With IANS inputs)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)