![handle is hein.journals/wlron2 and id is 1 raw text is: LIMELIGHT V. AKAMAI: LIMITING INDUCED
INFRINGEMENT
MICHAEL A. CARRIER
In Limelight Networks, Inc. v. Akamai Technologies, Inc.,' the
Supreme Court addressed the relationship between direct infringement
under § 271(a)2 of the Patent Act and induced infringement under
§ 271(b).3 The Court held that a defendant could be liable for inducing
infringement of a patented process only if a single party would have been
liable for performing all of the steps constituting direct infringement. In
this short article, I provide the background to the opinion, discuss the
ruling, and offer four lessons.
I. BACKGROUND
Respondent Akamai was the exclusive licensee of U.S. Patent No.
6,108,703 (the '703 patent), which claims a method of delivering
electronic data using a 'content delivery network' (CDN).4 Web site
content providers entered into arrangements with Akamai to deliver
content to users, and [t]he '703 patent provides for the designation of
certain components of a content provider's Web site ... to be stored on
Akamai's servers and accessed from those servers.s This process is
called tagging.
Petitioner Limelight also operates a CDN and carries out several of
the steps claimed in the '703 patent. But instead of tagging those
components of its customers' Web sites that it intends to store on its
servers[,] . . . Limelight requires its customers to do their own tagging.'
Akamai sued Limelight, and a jury found Limelight liable for
infringement.9 Shortly afterwards, the Federal Circuit, in Muniauction,
* Distinguished Professor, Rutgers School of Law. Copyright @ 2014
Michael A. Carrier.
1. 134 S. Ct. 2111 (2014).
2. 35 U.S.C. § 271(a) (2012) ([W]hoever without authority makes, uses,
offers to sell, or sells any patented invention . .. infringes the patent.).
3. § 271(b) (Whoever actively induces infringement of a patent shall be liable
as an infringer.).
4. Akamai, 134 S. Ct. at 2115. The other respondent, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, was the assignee of the patent. Id. This article refers to
respondents as Akamai.
5. Id.
6. Id.
7. Id.
8. Id.
9. Id. at 2115-16.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/wlron2&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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