Microsoft Forks Out $200 Million For Patent Infringement

You hear about a number of patent infringement lawsuits in this job, unsurprisingly few cases result in a decent sum being awarded.

In this case however that is not the case. VirnetX Holding Corp, a realtime communications security technology firm is on the winning end of suing Microsoft for patent infringement and Microsoft is coughing up a hefty $200 million.

VirnetX claimed that Microsoft used two of its US patents, specifically a virtual private network technology used in Microsoft’s Windows and Office communication server products.

TechEye reports that in March of this year, a jury suggested that Microsoft pay out $105.8 million for infringing on the private network VirnetX technology. However, VirnetX went a step further in the same month and alleged infringement of the patents in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.

The result, VirnetX receives a total of $200 million and Microsoft will obtain a license to the VirnetX patents for its products.

This might be pocket change to Microsoft but for VirnetX it’s a big win that see’s its share price double to hit $7.49.