According to the lawsuit filed in federal court in East Texas (known to be on the side of patent holders by default), Apple was fined for the infringement of patents covering the use of DNS to set up VPNs and are by iPhone, iPod Touch , iPad, and Macs that use FaceTime function which also infringe on VirnetX patents.
Before initiating the lawsuit VirnetX had asked Apple to reach a settlement out of court on the "fair price for the use of FaceTime function" but these were rejected, so the company sought compensation of up to $708 million. VirnetX was established by former employees from the Science Applications International Corporation. They claim that their patent rights come from activities performed by SAIC for the CIA, for which they developed methods of secure computer communications.

Apple however, claims that patents that were granted to VirnetX's are completely unsustainable in themselves and in addition Apple uses a completely different technology than the one patented by this company and SAIC. Therefore Apple’s technology, in no way, violates VirnetX’s patents even if they were legally sustainable. Consequently, they have announced they will appeal the verdict.

[Ed – it is interesting that Apple is making this claim against VirnetX as it is one they worked very hard to shoot down when it came to their own “rubber band” patent along with more than a few ideas that they borrowed and pushed through the patent office. While we are absolutely no fan of any patent troll company we do find it almost satisfying to see Apple impaled upon this Karmic sword especially as the USPTO is now reviewing some of the patents that Apple used against Samsung in their recent court case in the US. Apple has also had to repost the notice required by the UK courts stating that Samsung did not Copy Apple’s iPad. Meanwhile Apple’s stock continues on a downward trend…]
 
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