Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), lost a new part of the process opened by the company VirnetX no less than 8 years ago, being now obliged to pay 502.6 million dollars to it. The process started because of some patents that VirnetX owns, they describe technologies that are used for FaceTime and iMessage in iOS, Apple having many decisions against it, but each time it managed to force the restart of the process.
Today's decision is not final, but it brings higher damages than the 439.7 million dollars established in October 2017 against the Apple company. Then the Americans appealed against the decision, and what has been decided now is unfavorable to them, but of course the legal battle between the companies will continue in 2018.
After 8 years of litigation, those from Apple lost several million dollars with the lawyers used to prevent the payment of compensation, and things will continue like this. The interesting part is that the patents used by the company against Apple have the validity challenged in other courts, but a decision has not been given in that case, and the trial with Apple could end before it appears.
"VirnetX Holding Corp. won $502.6 million against Apple Inc. after a federal jury in Texas said the maker of iPhones was infringing patents for secure communications. VirnetX claimed that Apple's FaceTime, VPN on Demand and iMessage features infringe four patents related to secure communications."
In the meantime, those from Apple are trying to prolong the dispute until a decision is made regarding the validity of the patents in question, because the invalidation will lead to the disappearance of the process. Until then, the people from Apple have really violated the patented technologies, and the only thing left unclear is whether the patents are still valid or not.
