Judge Issues Ruling In Favor Of Limelight Networks Over Akamai Patent Lawsuit

On Friday, District Court judge Rya Zobel issued a preliminary ruling in the patent infringement lawsuit that Akamai filed against Limelight Networks. Shares in Limelight rose over $4 after the ruling. While I have not had time to read the entire ruling yet, essentially the court rejected the notion that Akamai could patent the way files were delivered over the Internet as per an article on Light Reading.

The article on Light Reading includes quotes that say, "What happened was Akamai was trying to patent the process, as opposed to its technology," Stimson said. "And the judge said, 'That's not a process you can patent."

I have not had a chance to speak to anyone from Limelight Networks or Akamai personally yet and neither of the companies have yet to put out an official statement on the wire about the ruling. IF this is the end of the litigation that would be good for both companies and the industry. While lawsuits are part of all industries, they distract all companies involved and don't allow them to focus all of their efforts on their core business.

I expect we'll hear more from Akamai and Limelight Networks with official announcements about the ruling before too long.

Comments

[Steve Lerner]

Judge Rya Zobel is the "Court TV of CDN" and was the same judge that presided over the legal issues between Akamai and Speedera many years ago. I wonder if she'll start her own CDN soon.

[Christopher Levy]

Does this mean all process patents related to this industry are now suspect?