Apple Must Pay Patent Troll More Than $500 Million In iMessage Case (bloomberg.com) 75
A federal court in Texas today has ordered Apple to pay $502.6 million to a patent troll called VirnetX, the latest twist in a dispute now in its eighth year. "VirnetX claimed that Apple's FaceTime, VPN on Demand and iMessage features infringe four patents related to secure communications, claims that Apple denied," reports Bloomberg. From the report: The dispute has bounced between the district court, patent office and Federal Circuit since 2010. There have been multiple trials, most recently one involving earlier versions of the Apple devices. A jury in that case awarded $302 million that a judge later increased to $439.7 million. Kendall Larsen, CEO of VirnetX, said the damages, which were based on sales of more than 400 million Apple devices, were "fair." "The evidence was clear," Larsen said after the verdict was announced. "Tell the truth and you don't have to worry about anything." For VirnetX, the jury verdict in its favor could be a short-lived victory. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has said the patents are invalid, in cases that are currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington. The Federal Circuit, which handles all patent appeals, declined to put this trial on hold, saying it was so far along that a verdict would come before a final validity decision.
Patents are broken. (Score:4, Informative)
Not much more to it really.
Re:Patents are broken. (Score:5, Insightful)
We need more cases like these to incentivize big corps to get behind patent reform. They still feel like the current system works to their benefit, since the ability to shut down upstart competitors is more important to them than the occasional troll payout.
Re: Patents are broken. (Score:1)
Oh, one of my cities has been nuked. What should I do?
a) Propose global disarmament.
b) Buy more nukes.
or more like
c) If I have the power, a) for others + b) for me
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Not only patent reform, but also a reform of that jury system.
How many countries do use juries? And for kind of cases?
In Germany this would be decided by the judges, based on what the parties bring as arguments and on expert opinions.
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It's easier to buy judges
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Of course they get a compensation, but not such absurd amounts like you often get in the US for your own stupidity.
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Actually, this reminds me of an episode of "The Invisible Man", the first series with David McCallum. When reality become stranger than fiction...
patent troll (Score:1)
They claim to have products, do they really qualify as a patent troll? I thought patent trolls just bought up crappy patents and try to collect on people who actually created products that are "close enough" to fool that corrupt judge down in TX. Still lame no matter what.
Re:patent troll (Score:5, Interesting)
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Marshall, TX was founded in 1841. It existed before patent trolling was a thing and is pretty decent size for cities in the area (23k) Why would it not exist?
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They did not say it would have never existed, only that it would not currently exist. What "thing" besides handle patent cases does Marshall do now?
Good question. Arguments both ways (Score:5, Interesting)
That's a good question. There are arguments both ways.
VirnetX WAS a research and development company that employed a lot of scientists and did good work. They z created* technology, they didn't mass produce and market it. Instead they did the research and licensed their patents to telecommunications companies and others.
Then somewhere along the line they realised they could *buy" parents cheaper than they could do the original research. They started licensing out patents that they bought, serving as a match-maker between researchers and companies that needed the technology. So far so good, in my opinion. We can see they got into the patent business, though.
Patent trolls frequently use "submarine patents", surprising companies *after* they have developed a product. That's not the case here. Apple engineers knew they were violating patents as they developed Apple's products. I don't know if Apple discussed license terms with VirnetX.
On the other hand, it seems these patents may not be valid after all. Patent trolls do frequently use questionable patents.
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Every time I am writing a line of code whatever the line, I know that I am violating patents. Patent system is broken. What is your point?
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Bullocks. They're a troll and nothing more. Real artists ship.
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If you're being sarcastic, the joke has gone so far back around the whole circle that it's just coming off as ignorant. If it's anything else other than you trying to make a funny and just whiffing so hard it looks like you had a stroke, please seek some professional help. You're seriously off the deep end here.
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Whiffing in that sentence would mean swinging and missing, something that makes no sense in relation to a stroke.
If you were trying to use the meaning of whiff that involves the sense of smell, you'll need to create some sort of context for it. Trying to be funny does not in any way invoke smelling something, but failure at it is often described as a miss.
Maybe it is just too complicated a word? Try with less wordsmithing next time; stick to words you know.
Is Texas a troll state? (Score:4, Funny)
Immediate dismissal? (Score:2, Insightful)
Why does the Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision not create immediate grounds for dismissal? Oh, right, East Texas.
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Why is round edge rectangles worth billions?
Oh wait, San Jose USA
Or.. (Score:5, Funny)
Dear Apple,
I offer to make everyone involved in the action against you "go away", at a significant discount vs $500M. I can assure you that it will all appear to be random happenstance.
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I think I saw this movie. [youtube.com] How are you going to top the auto-asphyxiation hit?
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From the page you 'linked' (learn how to do an href [virnetx.com]):
Our Gabriel Collaboration Suite is an integrated set of real-time communication and collaboration applications built on top of the Gabriel Security Platform.
Sounds like they have a software product.
Are you implying that software companies don't have 'real products.' Them's fighting words for some of the people around here....
Re: Patent troll? (Score:4, Informative)
Sounds like they have a software product.
Do they really, though? Go read the product page for the "Gabriel" software. It's all fluff, and reads like one of those pages you might accidentally stumble upon when you use google and the results turn out to be just spam pages repeating the same key-phrase ad nauseum.
How many customers do they have? Does the software actually make use of the patents in questions? When did they begin development of this product?
As far as I can tell their "product" didn't come into existence until 2014, whereas they've been suing apple since 2010.
They certainly seem to fit definition of a patent troll. The fact that they eventually pumped out some software is mere window-dressing; most likely it's intended to lend them credibility rather than actually attract customers.
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Sounds like they have a software product.
Do they really, though?
It seems so, you can download it here: https://www.myvirnetx.com/inde... [myvirnetx.com]'
It would be a damn shame if they were using some open source under a viral license other than the declared libav, libswscale and libswresample, or had failed to fully comply with the dependencies for those and someone sued them over it though, wouldn't it...
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Then why doesn't Apple hit them with a countersuit? With all of Apple's patents, surely there are at least a couple that anyone using a computer is possibly violating?
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The Apple PR machine is really in full swing.
The patent was found clear and genuine in every single way.
The only bad thing is that Apple tried to get away with it.
Errm, nope. The Texas court said Apple violated the patents, assuming (but not deciding) wether the patents were valid. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has said the patents are invalid, in cases that are currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington. If those cases are confirmed, this Texas verdict becomes meaningless, because you can't violate invalid patents.
Parasites (Score:2, Insightful)
This is the kind of capitalism that we would get if the hardcore right-wingers and libertarians had their way. Pure fascism. A world ruled by absolute psychopaths, corporate monopolies, and vulture capitalist parasites.
But of course, these idiots will tell you that this is all the fault of the evil guberment and their evil patent law, or some other nonsense. Listening to them you would think that without governement, the world would be a paradise. Guess what asshole: Without governement, the world would be
Re: Parasites (Score:1)
An anarchy with extreme patent enforcement. I've seen a lot of bugfuck ideas about libertarianism, but I've never seen that particular kink. Well done.
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Without governement, the world would be anarchy
No shit.
anarchy
noun
absence of government
Re:Parasites (Score:5, Informative)
I guess you have to grow up with an extreme level of right-wing propaganda surrounding you all your life before you can take any of that nonsense seriously.
They're just useful idiots for the US ruling class anyway, ignore them.
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English is not my native language. How many languages do YOU speak, trumptard ?
Patent is invalid, but ruling stands (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a strange quirk in the process that even though the patents have been declared invalid the ruling stands, at least until the validity of the patent has been adjudicated fully.
It's the legal system doing out-of-order speculative branch execution for the court/legal system - with promises.
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Too bad only the result was committed, some people in east texas need to be committed as well.
That money should be spent. (Score:1)
Re: That money should be spent. (Score:1)
If you really want a global cleanup you could start by taking a shower once in a while ya fucking hippie.
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Story Title Misleading (Score:3)
should read:
Reading the article, Apple isn't paying anything until the final appellate court's adjudication, which very likely will invalidate the patents in question.
IANAL
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Original article title was:
...which has the key piece of information after the comma, lacking in the posting title. Did Slashdot editor do this on purpose, to generate sensationalist rhetoric in the comments section?
thar orta be a fed'ral law (Score:2)
make it illegal to try patent cases in Texas.