FaceTime on mint mobileSource: iMore

What you need to know

  • A new report says Apple's patent losses to VirnetX this year could cost more than $1 billion.
  • VirnetX was awarded $503 million in October, on top of $454 million already awarded and paid earlier this year.
  • VirnetX is now seeking more than $100 million in interest from Apple on the second ruling.

Patent troll VirnetX is trying to squeeze even more money from Apple, seeking interest on an October ruling that could see Apple's bill owed to the company pass $1 billion.

From Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. said its financial penalty for infringing VirnetX Holdings Corp. patents could swell to more than $1 billion if a federal judge in Texas grants requests for additional interest and royalty payments on top of what juries in two separate cases have ordered the iPhone maker to pay.

VirnetX has asked U.S. District Judge Robert W. Schroeder III on to tack at least $116 million in interest onto the $503 million jurors awarded in October after concluding Apple infringed two patents related to secure communications in several iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch models.

VirnetX also wants 84 cents per infringing unit in royalties for any device sold in the future.

Apple lost a case to VirnetX in March to the tune of $454 million over patent infringements, and then the second case in October (on which VirnetX now wants interest) over patents pertaining to FaceTime and use of VPN on Demand in iOS, which VirnetX says infringes patents it holds for the technology.

Apple has previously stated that the patents are unrelated to the core operations of its products and that the patents have been found to be invalid by the US Patent and Trademark Office.