Patent trolling is the art of long-game patent squatting while remaining as irrelevant overall as possible. It’s a game that VirnetX has managed to pull off as it was awarded $625.6 million in an East Texas U.S District court ruling against Apple.
The patents Apple is said to have infringed on include communications protocols used in the company’s VoIP and video calling app FaceTime, the instant messaging app iMessage, and VPN on Demand. VirnetX originally got a win over Apple in 2012 for $368 million in 2012 which saw Apple make adjustments to FaceTime. The decision was thrown out in 2014 when another court found that the decision was tainted.
This isn’t the first major legal victory for VirnetX, but it is the biggest. In the past the company has taken wins over Cisco, Microsoft, NEC and a number of other tech companies. Following news of the decision, VirnetX stock rose almost 50-percent having opened at $8.85, spiking at $9.64, and closing at $7.06.
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