ZEPHYR COVE, Nev., Aug. 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- VirnetX™ Holding Corporation (NYSE AMERICAN: VHC), an Internet security software and technology company, announced today that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued two decisions in appeals brought by VirnetX:
The Federal Circuit issued an order denying Apple's petition for panel and en banc rehearing in Appeal No. 2018-1197, in which the court of appeals previously affirmed the judgement issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in favor of VirnetX in its litigation against Apple. The district court judgement awarded VirnetX a total of $439.8 million, including damages for willful infringement and attorney fees.
The Federal Circuit issued an opinion in Appeal Nos. 2017-1591, 2017-1592, 2017-1593 as to decisions by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board in three inter partes reexamination proceedings that had found unpatentable claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,418,504 and 7,921,211. The court of appeals agreed with VirnetX that the Patent Board could not maintain two of those reexaminations (initiated by Apple Inc.) with respect to claims as to which there has been a prior "final decision" on patent validity entered by a federal court. The Federal Circuit instructed the Patent Board to terminate those reexamination proceedings with respect to claims 1–35 of the '504 patent and claims 36–59 of the '211 patent. The court affirmed the Patent Board with respect to the remaining issues.
"We are extremely pleased with the Federal Court's decisions, which vindicate many of VirnetX's positions before both the Patent Board and the district court," said Kendall Larsen, VirnetX CEO and President. "These decisions follow the Federal Circuit's recent decisions in two other appeals that similarly vacated a number of the Patent Board's invalidity rulings with respect to VirnetX's patents on the basis of our arguments. Furthermore, we believe that Apple clearly and willfully infringed the claims upheld by the Federal Court."
About VirnetX
VirnetX Holding Corporation is an Internet security software and technology company with patented technology for secure communications including 4G LTE and 5G security. The Company's software and technology solutions, including its secure domain name registry and Gabriel Connection Technology™, are designed to facilitate secure communications and to create a secure environment for real-time communication applications such as instant messaging, VoIP, smart phones, eReaders and video conferencing. The Company's patent portfolio includes over 115 U.S. and international patents and over 50 pending applications. For more information, please visit www.virnetx.com
Forward Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical or current fact, including statements regarding the strength of VirnetX's intellectual property, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are based on expectations, estimates and projections about the markets in which the Company operates, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by management and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unknown factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to (1) the outcome of any legal proceedings that have been or may be initiated by the Company or that may be initiated against the Company, including pending and future inter partes review proceedings in the Patent and Trademark Office; (2) the ability to capitalize on the Company's patent portfolio and generate licensing fees and revenues; (3) the ability of the Company to be successful in entering into licensing relationships with its targeted customers on commercially acceptable terms; (4) potential challenges to the validity of the Company's patents underlying its licensing opportunities; (5) the ability of the Company to achieve widespread customer adoption of the Company's Gabriel Communication Technology™ and its secure domain name registry; (6) the level of adoption of the 3GPP Series 33 security specifications; (7) whether or not the Company's patents or patent applications may be determined to be or become essential to any standards or specifications in the 3GPP LTE, SAE project or otherwise; (8) the extent to which specifications relating to any of the Company's patents or patent applications may be adopted as a final standard, if at all; and (9) the possibility that Company may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors. In addition to statements which explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements labeled with the terms "believes," "belief," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," or "plans" to be uncertain and forward-looking. The forward-looking statements contained herein are also subject generally to other risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in the Company's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those under the heading "Risk Factors" in Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 19, 2019 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on May 10, 2019. Many of the factors that will determine the outcome of the subject matter of this press release are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. Except as required by law, the Company is under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform to actual results.
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VirnetX Holding Corporation
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