PATENT INFRINGMENT. VirnetX wins patent infringement dispute against Apple.

MANILA, Philippines - A federal jury found Apple’s FaceTime function infringed on patents related to virtual private network (VPN) technology.

Apple was then told to pay patent licensing firm VirnetX US$368.2-M for infringing on those patents.

VirnetX accused Apple of infringing on 4 private network patents. The case dealt with Apple’s smartphones, tablets and computers which use FaceTime.

According to Bloomberg’s report, the patents covered “the use of a domain-name service to set up virtual private networks.” These would allow website owners to securely interact with people visiting their site or let employees gain access to files from their work terminals while remaining at home.

In 2010, VirnetX won a US$200-M settlement versus Microsoft.

VirnetX also has similar lawsuits that are scheduled for trial in March against Avaya, Cisco and Siemens.

As Ars Technica explains, some of the patents VirnetX asserted against Apple include:

• An "Agile network protocol for secure communications with assured system availabilty"
• An "Agile network protocol for secure communications using secure domain names," another patent of the same title
• And "Establishment of a secure communication link based on a domain name service (DNS) request."

- Rappler.com