A ruling made last November found Apple guilty of infringing several VirnetX FaceTime patents, and was forced to pay $368m in damages. The legal battles revealed Apple's lack of due diligence process when it came to checking prior patents, as VirnetX's lawyers stated, "Apple developers testifies that they didn't pay any attention to anyone's patents when developing their system."
According to Slash Gear, "in Apple's recent quarterly report, the company filed Form 10-Q with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stating that it intends on challenging the verdict and has not 'recorded a loss accrual at this time."
Apple infringed 4 of the VirnetX patents that involved establishing virtual private networks (VPN) to secure communications. Apple used this technology for its FaceTime feature.
Many other companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, Siemens, and many other are being sued for infringement by VirnetX. Apple is also facing another lawsuit that includes infringing on the same patent in its other devices.
Apple infringed 4 of the VirnetX patents that involved establishing virtual private networks (VPN) to secure communications. Apple used this technology for its FaceTime feature.
Many other companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, Siemens, and many other are being sued for infringement by VirnetX. Apple is also facing another lawsuit that includes infringing on the same patent in its other devices.
Hm, I wonder if this will significantly effect Apple. If VirnetX receives damages or an injunction, their could be some seriously detrimental consequences since so many Apple products use FaceTime.
ReplyDeleteIt must be difficult to look for these patents if they are not currently issued, and the language that is used might be different. But, regardless Apple should definitely have spent more time looking at what IP they could have infringed on.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think that a company like Apple would have the resources to always make sure they are not infringing on patents. However, it is also extremely difficult I'm sure to know what you are infringing at the time because there can be so many things that you go into a single product. The solution is that Apple just needs to spend more time making sure they don't infringe patents.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking up VirnetX, I found that it considers itself as more of a security company and not one that would have an R&D department in order to file more patents. I'm wondering if VirnetX is a very successful and disguised patent troll because (esp shown on their website) it focuses less on its product and more on licensing, royalty rates, and patent portfolio. Also Apple is not the first company to lose the suit filed by VirnetX, it is also mentioned in the article that "It sued Microsoft back in 2007 and 2010, and won a $200 million settlement from the Windows OS company."
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Steve Jobs' uncompromising cultural influence on Apple had anything to do with the attitude of the developers, or if that particular division of Apple was understaffed at the time, making it so that it would be cost-prohibitive to slow down the rate of innovation.
ReplyDeleteI also find it curious that Apple refuses to acknowledge the write-down associated with the patent payment--I wonder if Samsung is doing the same with the hundreds of millions of dollars it owes Apple.
Apple truly lacks a management system for its patents. I wonder whether they have an internal search tool or a dedicated team managing these relationships. I wonder whether the device designers take in account whether the device configuration even factors into account if it infringes or not, or if they have some due diligence process for preventative steps.
ReplyDeleteIm sure Apple did this purposely. Im sure the amount they had to pay in reparations was minuscule compared to the money they made from infringing on other patents. I feel that they strategically didnt waste they money and time looking at hundreds of other patents and just rolled out their product as soon as possible and decided to deal with the infringements later.
ReplyDeleteWhile nominally, Apple was not aware of the patents that it had infringed upon when it created FaceTime, I can't help but feel that the development team was well aware of the patents involved in the technology, but wen ahead and developed it anyway. FaceTime was and still is one of the main selling features of iPhones, featuring prominently in many of Apple's advertisments, and Apple undoubtedly saw and is capitalizing the value that it provides regardless of the cost of litigation.
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