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VirnetX now goes after the iPad mini, iPhone 5 following $368m win

VirnetX is now targeting the iPhone 5, the iPad 4, the iPad mini, the fifth-generation iPod touch, and all Macs that have OS X 10.8 'Mountain Lion' installed on them with a new lawsuit.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

On the same day that it won a $368 million patent infringement case against Apple, VirnetX has filed a new lawsuit which alleges that the iPad mini and iPhone 5 infringe the same patent.

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The new lawsuit, filed November 6, claims that Apple's latest devices, which include the iPhone 5, the iPad 4, the iPad mini, the fifth-generation iPod touch, and all Macs that have OS X 10.8 'Mountain Lion' installed on them, infringe the patent because they offer customers access to FaceTime and iMessage.

According to Bloomberg, the technologies covered by the patents come from work carried out by a company called SAIC for the CIA.

The previously lawsuit, which was filed in August 2010 and also focused on FaceTime and iMessage, covered devices such as the iPhone 4 and first-generation iPad.

Four patents are at the heart of the claim -- U.S. Patent No. 6,502,135U.S. Patent No. 7,418,504U.S. Patent No. 7,921,211 and U.S. Patent No. 7,490,151 -- and all of which relate to secured communications over the internet.

The judge has ordered both companies to meet with a mediator, and it is likely that a licensing deal will agreed to.

VirnetX is also suing Cisco, Avaya, and Siemens, all of which offer video calling services that it says infringe the same four patents.

VirnetX is no stranger to legal victories, having won $200 million from Microsoft in 2010 after a jury upheld the allegation that Windows infringed on a number of the company's virtual private networking (VPN) patents.

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