Apple Rebuffed by High Court in $1 Billion VirnetX Dispute (1)

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal by Apple Inc. as the iPhone maker seeks to avoid paying as much as $1 billion in patent damages to upstart software developer VirnetX Holding Corp.

VirnetX, a Nevada company with less than $2 million in annual revenue, has waged a decade-long fight to collect royalties from Apple for secure communications technology used in FaceTime and virtual private network programs on devices including the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers.

VirnetX jumped as much as 18% on the news.

The high court denied Apple’s petition arguing that a $439 million judgment from ...