The disappointing court ruling regarding its patent infringement claims against Apple sent VirnetX shares down 43% to $2.47 and volume topped 2.76mln shares versus a daily average of 505,000. The $625.6 million verdict announced in February was one of the highest in a USA patent case. Apple has not exactly go the case thrown out, as the Tame Apple Press has claimed. Yet the lead attorney for VirnetX stated that he had no illusions that the verdict – one of the largest an East Texas federal jury ever issued-would end the lengthy litigation saga between the two companies.
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Apple will no longer have to pay $625.6 million to VirnetX, which claimed the Cupertino company was infringing upon four Internet security-related patents. VirnetX shares plunged 44.6% at the news to $2.40.
Judge Robert Schroeder, from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, deemed the trial to have been not fair because jurors heard arguments stemming from two separate lawsuits, which created the potential for confusion. Not by a long shot.
“The repeated references to the prior jury verdict in the consolidated case resulted in an unfair trial”, Schroeder wrote in his ruling.
The first case is now scheduled to begin on September 26, and the second will be retried afterwards.
Kendall Larsen, CEO of VirnetX, said it was disappointed with the decision.
We are reviewing all our options and will follow the Court’s directions as we start preparing for these retrials.
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Both Apple and VirnetX didn’t immediately return requests for comments. For more on this read the full Reuters report here.
