Level 3 Files Suit Against Limelight Networks Over CDN Patents

This morning, Google indexed a filing from December 17th from Level 3 Communications who filed a patent infringement suit against Limelight Networks (Case number 2:2007cv00589) in the District Court of Virgina. I have not been able to get a copy of the filing as of yet but I was able to speak to Level 3 about the filing this morning.

While Level 3 is not giving out many details of the suit, as is common in these cases, they were able to confirm that the patent(s) in question were acquired by Level 3 from SAVVIS as part of the sale of SAVVIS's CDN assets. Level 3 would not say how many patents are in question or give out patent numbers at this time, but they did say that the infringement relates specifically to content distribution. They would not say what kind of content distribution, video, static, applications etc... but were willing to say that the patent(s) in question have never been previously asserted in any patent infringement case.

Level 3 has over 850 worldwide patents and patent applications in their portfolio and did say that when they decided to get into the CDN business that they viewed having patents pertaining to the product as being a key factor that would help determine their long term success. At this time, Level 3 would not comment on any other networks who might be infringing on their patents or speculate on additional infringement cases.

I've put in a request to Limelight Networks and will update the post if I hear from them this weekend. I also expect to have a copy of the filing shortly and am looking to see what records exist that talk about the SAVVIS patents, which really comes from the Cable and Wireless patents that SAVVIS acquired.

Comments

[Ike Elliott]

Dan, I am guessing that one of the patents that Level 3 is asserting is 6,654,807, "Internet Content Delivery Network". This one has pretty broad claims about the use of caching in content distribution applications. More on my blog at http://ikeelliott.typepad.com/telecosm/2007/12/level-3-files-a.html

[Steve Lerner]

To study the history of CDN litigation, go to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts web site:

http://pacer.mad.uscourts.gov/opinion.html

and search for opinions from Judge Rya Zobel on keyword Akamai.

Judge Zobel has handled most of the relevant CDN decisions so far.