Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has won an appeal after a US court upheld a patent tribunal’s ruling against VirnetX (NYSE-A:VHC).
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a decision that invalidated two patents VirnetX (NYSE-A:VHC), a patent licensing company, had accused Apple of infringing.
Thursday’s decision reaffirmed that the patents were invalid considering earlier publications that described the same inventions.
Kendall Larsen, chief executive of VirnetX (NYSE-A:VHC), said the company was disappointed with the decision and was considering seeking an appeal to the US Supreme court.
VirnetX and Apple have been waging a 13-year court battle, which has included several trials and appeals, according to Reuters.
In 2020, an East Texas jury awarded VirnetX US$502mln after deciding Apple had infringed virtual private network patents, which was the issue at hand in Thursday's ruling.