Apple Sued for VPN On-Demand Functionality in Mountain Lion

Delaware VirnetX and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) have jointly filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The Plaintiff's state that most of Apple's mobile devices such as the iPhone that connect to Mountain Lion supporting the VPN On-Demand functionality infringe on four of their patents. Should VirnetX be taken seriously? Most certainly, as the company has just won their case against Apple concerning FaceTime infringing their patents.

The Patents that Apple Allegedly Infringe

According to the plaintiffs formal complaint before the Court, Apple has infringed upon four of their patents as acknowledged here: 1. Patent 6,502,135 titled - Agile Network Protocol for Secure Communications with Assured System Availability; 2. Patent 7,418,504 titled - Agile Network Protocol for Secure Communications Using Secure Domain Names; 3. Patent. 7,490,151 titled - Establishment of a Secure Communication Link Based on a Domain Name Service (DNS) Request; and 4. Patent 7,921,211 titled - Agile Network Protocol for Secure Communications Using Secure Domain Names. The document states that SAIC maintains an equity interest and review rights related to the first three patents noted above.

The Heart of the Case

The Plaintiff's complaint states that "at least Apple's servers and other Apple computers that support the VPN On Demand functionality, when configured and operating in a system as specified by Apple, and Apple's iPhone 5, iPod Touch 5th Generation, iPad 4th Generation, iPad mini, and all Apple computers/hardware associated with the operation of the Mountain Lion operating system, when configured and operating in a system as specified by Apple, infringe at least system claims 10 and 12 of the '135 patent. Apple makes and/or uses these systems and thus directly infringes at least claims 10 and 12 of the '135 patent."

Other claims that infringe the Plaintiff's patents include 1, 3, 7, 8 and 9.

The Plaintiffs are seeking triple damages due to alleged willful infringement.

The case was of course filed in the Texas Eastern District Court in Tyler Texas that is home to patent trolls or IP Defenders, depending on your perspective.

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