Akamai Techs., Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc., No. 09-1372 (Fed. Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseIn 2006, Akamai alleged that Limelight infringed several patents, including the 703 patent, which claims methods for delivering content over the Internet. At trial, the parties agreed that Limelight’s customers—not Limelight— perform the “tagging” and “serving” steps in the claimed methods. The judge instructed the jury that Limelight is responsible for its customers’ performance of the tagging and serving method steps if Limelight directs or controls its customers’ activities. The jury found that Limelight infringed claims 19, 20, 21, and 34, but the court held, as a matter of law, that there could be no liability. After a remand by the Supreme Court, the Federal Circuit, en banc, reversed and unanimously set forth the law of divided infringement under 35 U.S.C. 271(a). The jury heard substantial evidence from which it could find that Limelight directs or controls its customers’ performance of each remaining method step, such that all steps of the method are attributable to Limelight. Limelight conditions its customers’ use of its content delivery network upon its customers’ performance of the tagging and serving steps, and establishes the manner or timing of its customers’ performance.
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on December 20, 2010.
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