Further reinforcing the reputation of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas as the patent lawsuit capital of the world, a Silicon Valley firm, VirnetX, has scored a huge, $105.75M award from Microsoft over patent infringement of two of VirnetX's patents. VirnetX had filed a patent lawsuit in 2007 against Microsoft, over two of its patents covering virtual private network (VPN) technology. VirnetX was represented by Dallas-based law firm McKool Smith in the patent lawsuit. The law firm said that jurors awarded $71.75 million against Microsoft for infringing on U.S. patent 6,502,135, and $34 million for infringing on U.S. patent 7,188,180. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas is a very popular location for patent infringement suits, due to a reputation for favorable judgements; the court now field a large chunk of the patent lawsuits filed each year by corporations.