For more than a decade, VirnetX Inc. and Apple Inc. have locked horns over claims certain features on Apple devices infringe VirnetX patents for securing private data across networks. The saga has involved Apple cutting a check for more than $450 million after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up its appeal of a 2016 jury verdict. 

But in a follow-on case involving newer devices, Apple’s appellate lawyers at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr led by Bill Lee, Mark Fleming and Lauren Fletcher late last month convinced the Federal Circuit to knock out an even bigger award. On Thursday, March 30, the appellate court upheld a ruling from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board invalidating the last two remaining patents VirnetX was asserting against Apple. The following day the same Federal Circuit panel knocked out the $576 million judgment Apple faced after an East Texas jury in 2020 had awarded VirnetX $502 million in damages for infringing the two patents.