Apple asked to pay $500mn in patent suit

San Francisco: A US court has asked Apple to pay $502.6 million in a patent suit to the intellectual property hoarder VirnetX -- widely known as "patent troll".

According to a report in Engadget on Wednesday, the court in Eastern Texas issued the order after VirnetX filed a lawsuit against the tech giant accusing it of infringing its intellectual properties.

VirnetX claims that Apple features like FaceTime, iMessage and VPN on Demand violate four of its patents.

"The evidence was clear. Tell the truth and you don't have to worry about anything," VirnetX chief Kendall Larsen was quoted as saying.

The original suit was filed in 2010 by VirnetX.

The previous appeal was in October 2017 when Apple was ordered to pay $439.7 million.

According to The Verge, while VirnetX is based in Nevada, the suit was filed in east Texas which is more patent troll-friendly.