Microsoft patent victors back for more
A company which won a $100 million-plus payout from Microsoft this week is applying for an upgrade. VirnetX, which won cases involving XP and Vista is now bringing similar claims over Windows 7.
The cases involved patents on virtual private networks, which are effectively networks built on top of existing networks, usually with a higher level of security. One patent involved VPNs between computers and the other involved VPNs between different domain names.
Though it asked for $242 million in damages, the court awarded VirnetX a total of $106 million. Though the firm is based in California, and Microsoft in Washington state, the case was brought in Tyler in East Texas, a jurisdiction with a reputation for hitting companies hard when they are shown to have violated patents.
A spokesman for VirnetX said the result confirmed the company had probably the “most important patent portfolio in history in regards to security” and described it as a “goldmine”.
The firm isn’t hanging about before making its next excavation attempt, either. It’s already filed a new suit on the basis that the violations in XP and Vista are replicated in Windows 7 and Server 2008.
At first glance, that should be a safe bet (assuming VirnetX shows it had good reason not for raising this issue before, presumably because the original case was started before Windows 7′s release).
However, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Nick Eaton notes both the new case and the previous verdict could be complicated. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has actually rejected some of the patents involved, though this was in the form of a preliminary rejection. That triggered an ongoing process to review the validity of the claims. If this finds against VirnetX, the verdict could be overturned.
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March 20th, 2010
Takes a REAL Microsoft hater to write this up like this to sound congratulatory that these trolls won a case. You sound almost SAD that the PTO might do their actual JOB and review these patents on their merits and start tossing some.