GigaOM » VirnetX

Apple loses FaceTime patent trial, told to pay $368M

Erica Ogg — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:19:55 +0000

Apple has been ordered by a U.S. district court in Texas to pay $368.2 million to a VPN company for violating its patents while building FaceTime into Macs and iOS devices, according to Bloomberg. VirnetX, based in Nevada, sued Apple earlier this year over four patents it owns related setting up VPNs with a domain-name service. It was seeking more than $700 million in damages.

The lawyer for VirnetX claimed that Apple’s engineers didn’t bother to look and see if there were any patents covering the video calling service as they were building it: “Apple says they don’t infringe. But Apple developers testified that they didn’t pay any attention to anyone’s patents when developing their system.”

Apple representatives argued that VirnetX didn’t invent the technology at issue and “if used, is a small part of very large, complex products.”

Steve Jobs introduced FaceTime for newly launched iPhone 4 in June 2010. The service came to the Mac later that year. VirnetX’s technology was originally developed within a division of U.S.’s Central Intelligence Agency for setting up secure communications. It was later spun off from the agency as a public company.

Apple’s not the only one accused of using these patented technologies without a license. VirnetX also has cases pending against Cisco, Avaya and Siemens. It has already won a decision against Microsoft for $200 million in 2010.

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The Apple Roundup: iPhone 5 is most difficult device Foxconn’s built

Erica Ogg — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 16:09:28 +0000

With so many people writing about Apple, finding the best stories and reports isn’t easy. Here’s our daily pick of stories about the company from around the Web that you shouldn’t miss:

The iPhone 5 isn’t just a difficult device to build, says Foxconn’s parent company Hon Hai. It’s the most challenging device the company has ever been tasked to manufacture, it told the Wall Street Journal.
In Tuesday night’s presidential debate, President Obama channeled Steve Jobs a bit when asked about whether the iPad and iPhone would ever be built in the U.S. Fortune has the video and transcript.
Also at the debate, Mitt Romney called attention to “counterfeit Apple stores” in China selling “counterfeit goods” as a way of attacking China’s loose attitude toward intellectual property. The blogger who brought that store to national media attention in the U.S. spoke to the WSJ’s China Realtime Report about why he didn’t quite get the story right.
Looking at Apple’s whole mobile product lineup, Asymco’s Horace Dediu takes a stab at how Apple might price an iPad mini by wireless capability and storage capacity.
Apple is being investigated by the International Trade Commission after a complaint filed by VirnetX, a company that wants a ban on Apple products. The reason? VirnetX says Apple’s wireless products infringe on its own patents. (via AppleInsider)

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