What happened

Shares of VirnetX Holding (VHC -2.13%) rose on Wednesday after the company provided an update on its ongoing legal battle with Apple (AAPL -1.19%). The stock was up about 7.8% at 11:40 a.m. EDT after having risen as much as 28% earlier in the day.

So what

In an SEC filing, VirnetX disclosed that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas denied a motion for relief from judgement brought by Apple. VirnetX had previously been awarded $439.8 million in a case against the tech giant that began nearly 10 years ago.

A rising chart.

Image source: Getty Images.

VirnetX announced in March it had received a payment of $454 million from Apple, representing the judgement plus interest. That followed a February decision from the U.S. Supreme Court denying Apple's petition for a writ of certiorari seeking a review of judgment in the case.

The legal battle is over virtual private network technology used in Apple's FaceTime product.

Now what

VirnetX has a market capitalization of less than $400 million, so any adverse ruling related to the Apple case would be very bad news for the stock. Shares of VirnetX are now up about 44% for the year including Wednesday's rally.