02.03.2013

Apple to pay Facetime $368 million in patent infringement case.

Last week, a U.S. federal judge approved the $368 million patent infringement judgment against Apple Inc.

In late 2012, a Texas jury found that Apple had infringed four "Facetime" patents owned by VirnetX Holding Corp, and ordered Apple to pay VirenetX $368 million in damages. The FaceTime application is used on the iPad and iPhone.

After losing the case in 2012, Apple fought to eliminate or reduce the verdict. But the Judge now affirmed the damages.

As is now apparently the norm in patent infringement cases, however, the judge rejected VirnetX’s request for an injunction that would have prevented Apple from providing Facetime on its various devices. Since Facetime is already on millions of devices, the Judge said an injunction would be too drastic a remedy.

First, the judge found that the cost to Apple to comply at with such injunction would be over $50 million. Second, the judge also found that an injuction would significantly harm consumers and other third parties.

At the end, the Judge ordered Apple and VirnetX into mediation to determine a fair royalty rate that Apple would pay to use VirnetX's technology in its products.