A federal appeals court reversed and remanded a lower court’s...
A federal appeals court reversed and remanded a lower court’s ruling involving claims that Limelight Networks infringed certain Akamai patents. A divided en banc panel of judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Akamai…
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can press its theory of induced infringement in the case, the majority opinion said (http://xrl.us/bnnwc9). “We conclude Akamai should be given the benefit of this court’s ruling disproving the line of divided infringement cases that the district court felt compelled to follow.” The majority’s opinion marks “dramatic changes in the law of infringement,” Judge Pauline Newman wrote in a dissent accompanying the opinion. “This new rule is not in accordance with statute, precedent and sound policy,” Newman wrote. “It raises new issues unrecognized by the majority and contains vast potential for abuse.” Limelight said the ruling effectively set aside the jury’s original verdict in the case and that “Limelight continues to believe it does not infringe and will pursue all procedural avenues to vindication” under the new inducement theory spelled out in the majority opinion. A spokesman for Akamai said the company is still reviewing the opinion but is very pleased with the new standard the court adopted. “We are very excited about the opportunity to prove Limelight’s infringement as well as the new protections afforded to interactive innovations like those pioneered by Akamai,” he said. The opinion is probably good news for Akamai, Wells Fargo analyst Gray Powell wrote in a note to investors. “Should the lower court rule in AKAM’s favor, we believe LLNW would need to either enter a license agreement with AKAM or find some other work around in order to compete in the CDN [content delivery network] space,” he said. “Longer term, this could lead to reduced competition and more favorable pricing in the CDN sector.”