Akamai Awarded $45.5 Million In Patent Ruling Against Limelight Networks

A few hours ago, a ruling came down in the Akamai and Limelight Networks patent suit awarding Akamai $45.5 million dollars finding that Limelight Networks infringed on Akamai's patents. Akamai is also asking the court to issue a permanent injunction prohibiting Limelight from continuing to sell CDN their services.

While the damage claims are not that big of a deal in terms of the size of settlement Limelight would have to pay, the real question is what Limelight does next. There are a few potential things that could happen which are all going to be based on whether or not the court issues an injunction in Akamai's favor. If Akamai gets the injunction, Limelight options will be limited as they won't have a lot of time to stay an injunction.

Limelight might be able to find a work around on its network to avoid the infringing patent and could always potentially come to some kind of licensing terms with Akamai, but my guess is that they already have a work around on their network to avoid the infringement. They have known about the suit for a long time and hopefully, have prepared different plans to put into action once the ruling came out.

Comments

[Ed Kroeplin]

An idea on how Limelight could beat Akamai in the market - better technology.

The full-screen 1080p (1080 x 642) video in the main page at www.designavs.com is the nicest looking and most highly compressed I've ever seen online (without having to download to my hard drive to play or change anything). Didn't believe so confirmed their small file size claims by looking at my temorary files.

These guys have something good and support all video file formats on all platforms Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. They also support mobile distribution in formats like H.264. Shaun Maki there has been able to answer my questions and is very responsive.

Many desire a HD social network that works directly on the computers of today in without additions/changes. To share full screen good looking HD video in 1080p (1280 x 720) like the original when compressed. There is currently no place to share HD online.

Possibly Limelight could provide a solution for us all and make money. From what I've seen Akamai powered sights leave room for improvement.

Ed