In an extraordinary development, cybersecurity firm VirnetX Inc. has entreated the U.S. Supreme Court to revaluate the annulment of a significant ruling against Apple Inc. The previous ruling had ordered Apple to disburse $576.5 million for an alleged infringement of VirnetX’s network security patents.
The dispute according to VirnetX, lies in a critical decision permitting Apple to contest the credibility of the patents. VirnetX argued that this course of action essentially ‘gutted’ a temporal restriction that had previously been applied to reviews called “inter partes reviews.” These are proceedings whereby anyone can challenge the validity of a patent after it has been granted. The purpose of these reviews is to ensure that incorrect patent grants can be rectified by being rescinded.
VirnetX’s reproach primarily centers around the argument that the tolling provision for inter partes reviews, was egregiously ignored when Apple was permitted to challenge the patents. This rendered what VirnetX saw as an unfair advantage to the technology giant, against whom the patents had initially been enforced.
For further details on the case, you can consult the original report.