Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Portions of Akamai patent suit settled, set stage for another

The U.S. District Court for Massachusetts has made several rulings in Akamai Technologies Inc.'s patent lawsuit against Arizona-based rival Limelight Networks Inc.

Among the rulings was a summary judgement of noninfringement regarding one patent (No. 6,553,413) in favor of Limelight, removing that patent from the upcoming trial. In addition, the ruling granted Akamai's motion on Limelight's patent misuse defense regarding patent No. 6,108,703.

The rulings set the stage for a trial focused heavily on the '703 patent. That trial is scheduled to begin on Monday, Feb. 11, 2008.

Cambridge's Akamai initiated the lawsuit against Limelight in 2006, alleging the company was infringing on the '703 and '413 patents. Both patents were issued to MIT and licensed exclusively to Akamai.

Akamai earlier this week agreed to a judgment that Limelight does not infringe on another patent, No. 7,103,645. Akamai also stated it is no longer alleging willful infringement by Limelight and would not allege, as part of its infringement case, that Limelight had copied any of the allegedly patented features, according to Limelight officials.