One More Patent Boom for VirnetX

VirnetX Holding Corp. (NYSEMKT: VHC) has announced that on Wednesday the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, issued its patent claim construction, or “Markman” Order, in the ongoing patent infringement action between VirnetX and Avaya Inc. and Siemens Enterprise Communications Inc. In the order, the court denied the defendants’ request to change the interpretation of some of the claim terms that were in dispute in the litigation. They will remain unchanged from what was previously adopted by the court in the Markman ruling in its other ongoing infringement action against Cisco Systems Inc.(NASDAQ: CSCO), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and NEC.

Kendall Larsen, president and CEO of VirnetX, said:

We are extremely pleased with the Court’s Markman Order. We remain confident in the merits of our complaint against Avaya and Siemens. … While the outcome of this and any legal matter is unpredictable, we believe the Court’s Markman Order is another significant step towards the successful resolution of this litigation.

VirnetX is an Internet security software and technology company with patented technology for secure communications, including 4G LTE security. The company’s patent portfolio includes 20 U.S. and 26 international patents, as well as more than 100 pending applications. It has a market cap of about $1.3 billion, and short interest is more than 33% of the float.

VirtnetX is up more than 5% in morning trading to $25.19. The 52-week trading range is $11.02 to $41.93. Before this announcement, the two brokers who follow the stock surveyed by Thomson/First Call had a mean price target of $57.50 on the shares.