After Patent Loss, Apple Makes FaceTime Worse
Both sides in the litigation admit that if Apple routes its FaceTime calls through relay servers, it will avoid infringing the VirnetX patents. Once Apple was found to be infringing—and realized it could end up paying an ongoing royalty for using FaceTime—the company redesigned the system so that all FaceTime calls would rely on relay servers. Lease believes the switch happened in April.
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At trial, Apple engineer Patrick Gates testified about how FaceTime works. He downplayed the impact that changing the system would have on FaceTime quality—presumably to show how unimportant the VirnetX patents were.
But since the switch to relays, call quality has apparently degraded, though the article only cites the number of complaints since April.
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I'm pretty strongly pro-IP, but the whole current regime is just weird.
It's as if some century-old company were able to patent connecting your refrigerator to the electrical grid via a plug-in scheme.
