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Patent tank VirnetX fires 'secure domain name' design claim at Apple

New claim follows $368m victory just a month ago

Security patent wielder VirnetX has tacked a newly protected design onto a fresh lawsuit against Apple over secure communications technology.

VirnetX said it has just been granted two new patents in the US, and has filed with the Texan courts to add one of them on to its list of claims against the iPhone maker.

The new patent in question, 8,504,697, describes "an agile network protocol for secure communications" involving what appears to be domain name to network address lookups.

"We are very pleased to add these new patents to our patent portfolio," said chief Kendall Larsen. "Our patent portfolio consists of quality, essential patents and we believe these new patents will strengthen our ongoing licensing efforts to the mobile markets."

A jury has already found Apple guilty of infringing VirnetX patents with the fruity firm's FaceTime video call app - used on iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches and Macs - back in November last year, and ordered Cupertino to cough up $368m in damages.

But VirnetX launched another suit against Apple just a month later, claiming it was infringing on four secure comms patents.

The firm has also accused Cisco of infringing its patents in a case it lost in March, but won a suit against Microsoft that was eventually settled in a $200m deal. ®

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