A federal judge denied Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) motion for a summary judgement in its ongoing patent litigation with patent holding company VirnetX (NYSE: VHC).

VirnetX is up more than four percent Monday.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas denied Apple's allegation that terms used by VirnetX in the disputed patents were are too ambiguous and thus unenforceable for "indefiniteness."

Both parties had presented arguments on the disputed terms along with various other motions at a so-called Markman hearing May 20 in which a judge rather than jury rules on patent terms. VirnetX has charged that Apple violated 16 of its its secure networking patents.

The court's Markman order precludes Apple from asserting invalidity as a defense against infringement of the claims that were tried before a jury in VirnetX's prior litigation against Apple.

Apple is not precluded from asserting invalidity as a defense against infringement of the claims that were not tried before a jury in the Apple I case.

VirnetX Chief Executive Kendall Larsen said the court's action "represents another significant step towards the successful resolution of this litigation."

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