The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a decision from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that invalidated the two patents VirnetX had accused Apple of infringing.
The two companies have waged a 13-year court battle that has included several trials and appeals. An East Texas jury awarded VirnetX $502 million in 2020 after deciding that Apple infringed the virtual private network (VPN) patents at issue in Thursday’s decision.
Apple has separately appealed the verdict itself, but the Federal Circuit has yet to rule in that case. The court heard combined arguments in both cases in September, and both sides said upholding the decision to cancel the patents would also likely negate the jury award.
