Apple ordered to pay $502.6 mn after losing a patent lawsuit

Apple has been ordered to pay $502.6 million to VirnetX Holding Corp. after the company lost a patent infringement lawsuit. The verdict was announced by the grand jury in Texas after finding that Apple infringed patents that were related to secure communications, reports Bloomberg.

The legal battle between the companies has been going on for past eight years. VirnetX makes most of its money from licensing patented technology that powers virtual private networks over the web. The company filed three lawsuits against Apple back in 2010 alleging that Apple's FaceTime, iMessage, and VPN on Demand are already patented by VirnetX.

In February 2016, Apple was ordered to pay $625.6 million in damages after two of the lawsuits were combined, but the verdict was later voided by a federal judge saying that combining two lawsuits would be unfair to Apple.

Later in October 2017, a federal judge in Texas ordered the company to pay $439.7 million, which was almost $140 million more than what the company was asked to pay VirnetX in yet another lawsuit.

VirtnetX spokesman Greg Wood believes that the verdict "fair and appropriate," but the judgment had a little impact as the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled the patents invalid in 2016.

Apple is yet to respond on the matter.

Speaking of patents, this doesn't seem to bother Apple a lot. The company recently filed a patent for an AR adaptive display for self-driving cars. The patent comes under the moniker 'Adaptive vehicle augmented reality display using stereographic imagery.'

The patent reveals details about the display system that includes an AR system that will be capable of using a pre-generated 3D model of the surroundings. The patent also suggests that the system will offer even more details about the world around them, while on the move.

The pre-generated 3D model could also include data about landmarks, points of interest, and other areas that might be useful to the drivers. This data could also be stored remotely on the cloud. The 3D model could be collected in bits and pieces, as seen on online mapping services. Relevant sections will then be provided to the car's AR system when required.