Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
797 F.3d 1020 (2015)
Akamai (plaintiff) sued Limelight (defendant) for infringing its content-delivery patent; Limelight's own network performed most steps, but required its customers, by contract and step-by-step instruction, to perform the remaining "tagging" and "serving" steps to use the service. The jury found infringement based on an instruction that Limelight could be held liable if it directed or controlled its customers' performance, but the district court granted judgment as a matter of law for Limelight, and after Federal Circuit and Supreme Court proceedings, the case returned for reconsideration of divided infringement.
Whether, when more than one party performs steps of a claimed method at the direction or control of a single entity, the performance of all actors is attributable to that single entity for purposes of direct infringement.