Akamai Awarded $51 Million Damages in Final Judgment of Limelight Patent Case

U.S. District Court in Boston entered a final judgment Friday in favor of Akamai in the company’s long-running patent infringement lawsuit against Limelight Networks, awarding Akamai $51 million damages. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in August that Limelight was liable for direct infringement of an Akamai-owned content delivery system patent (see 1508140059). The Federal Circuit’s 2015 en banc ruling, which remanded the case to the Boston district court, reversed an earlier circuit court decision from the same year. The Supreme Court ruled against the Federal Circuit in 2014 in Limelight v. Akamai (see report in the June 3, 2014, issue). The $51 million damages award announced Friday includes the initial $45.5 million damages a jury awarded Akamai in 2008 and $5.4 interest on the award, District Judge Rya Zobel said in the judgment (in Pacer). “We are extremely pleased after ten years of litigation to have a final judgment entered in Akamai's favor that recognizes Limelight's infringement and the harm it caused," said Akamai General Counsel Aaron Ahola in a statement. "We will continue to vigorously protect our intellectual property to maximize shareholder value." Limelight didn’t comment.