In the past 10 years, Apple has been battling with a company called VirnetX over a patent dispute. At long last, everything related to the patent dispute is about to come to an end. The best part is that Apple gets to run away with an amount of $502.8 million. Apple was supposed to pay this money to VirnetX as a patent infringement fee.
The US patent and trademark office has invalidated a pair of patents that VirnetX had used in its patent against Apple. According to Reuters, the US court of appeals for the federal court confirmed this on Thursday.
Apple Was Ordered to Pay %503 million to VirnetX 
In 2020, Apple was ordered to pay an amount of $503 million to VirnetX. This is because Apple infringed on VPN patents that belongs to VirnetX. Apple used this for the iPhone VPN on demand feature.
With reports of both patents now invalidated, the legal action VirnetX took against Apple for patent infringement may not stand. For this reason, the whole case against Apple may be vacated.
Back in September, Apple appealed the $503 million that was awarded to VirnetX. Both companies presented their own arguments in the Appeal. At that time, the Attorney for VirnetX Jeff Lamken revealed that VirnetX would face a lot of challenges if the court supported the invalidation of the patent by USPTO.
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He emphasized that it was not going to have an “enforceable judgement” in such a case. This explains that the invalidation of the patents could mean a win for Apple. If this happens, it automatically makes the case against Apple null.
Now that the patents are marked invalid, both companies will meet in court again. The court will sit over this case for the final verdict on Apple’s initial appeal for the payment of the money. This could see Apple go scot-free without paying the %503 million since the patent is now invalid.
Apple will Still Pay Money to VirnetX for Patent Infringement 
Irrespective of how this goes, the iPhone maker was already ordered to pay some amount to VirnetX. Applen will pay %440 million to the same company, VirnetX. This is because Apple violated VirnetX’s communication security patents. The Cupertino company violated this with features such as FaceTime and iMessage.
VirnetX owns and markets the authenticated meeting software called “War Room. However, it makes most of its income from other companies that infringe on its patents.
