Limelight Strikes Akamai with a Counterpunch

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After an August upset where Akamai won an almost decade long infringement case with Limelight, Limelight is striking back with a counterpunch of their own.  Limelight has announced that they will seek review by the US Supreme Court of the August decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The case was initially filed in 2006 and has been passed between the Federal Circuit and Supreme Court over the issue of divided infringement.  The central question of the case was whether or not Limelight should be held responsible if its customers performed some of the steps covered under Akamai’s patent.  Limelight’s position is that this ruling expands the scope of liability in a fashion that was both unintentional and inconsistent with prior legal precedent.

Limelight argues that prior to this ruling, a company was solely responsible for their conduct and the technology itself.  The implications of the court’s decision is that a company is now responsible for both its conduct, and what their customers are doing with their technology. Limelight expects that the relevance of this interpretation of what direct infringement is so broad that they will have support from other leading tech companies.

Limelight’s lawyers will soon ask the Supreme Court to review this decision, and if the court accepts this decade long battle over patent infringement will continue into the next 9-18 months.  In addition to this Supreme Court review, Limelight is striking back with one last blow, suing Akamai and XO Communications for infringing six of their patents.  Limelight believes that this lawsuit will protect them in the future against any illegal competition.

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