Court ‘not persuaded’ C&W infringes Akamai patents

A District Court in Boston, Massachusetts ruled Friday that Cable & Wireless Plc's content delivery network service no longer infringes patents held by rival Akamai Technologies Inc.

Judge Rya Zobel denied Akamai's motion to hold C&W in contempt of court for not stopping its CDN services following a permanent injunction that was issued in August. Zobel also denied a C&W motion to stay the injunction pending appeal.

"I am not persuaded that the revised version of the Footprint 2.0 does infringe any of the claims as to which the jury found infringement by the prior version of defendant's service," court documents said.

The orders mean C&W's CDN customers have backup to the company's assertions that the latest version of the service works around the patents. The technology in dispute handles the way files are addressed on a distributed network of servers.

C&W was found last December to infringe some claims of Akamai's so-called Leighton-Lewin patent, but not in violation of others. C&W immediately migrated its customers to an addressing scheme that had similar functionality but worked around the patent.

"We are continuing to press our claims for monetary damages as a result of the infringement that was already established during trial," an Akamai spokesperson said. "We are evaluating our options, including whether to seek reconsideration of the contempt issue or to have that question addressed on appeal."

The Akamai spokesperson said the firm is "disappointed" with the ruling, but pleased with Zobel's second order, which denied C&W motion to stay the injunction on the basis that "there is no irreparable harm" because of the workaround.

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