Akamai vs. Limelight Networks

Feb 6, 2008 – 21:20 by Ryan

Disclaimer

The views expressed here are opinions and guesstimates for research purposes. There are insights that can be made about Internet systems; however, without inside information, it is impossible to determine the exact implementation of a system. Our goal in this post is to research the litigious nature of Akamai.

The House that ‘703 Built

The lawsuit filed by Akamai against Limelight Networks is heating up. There was a summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of Limelight on patent 6,553,413. Now, Limelight has to defend their position on patent 6,108,703.

It appears as if patent ‘703 may be built on a house of cards. The inventors meticulously documented a hosting system based on a two-level name system. In reading the patent, it looks like claim after claim builds upon and extends this core idea. Akamai probably used this approach because with the technologies available at the time, it made the most sense. It would be silly for a modern hosting system to use this approach. It only adds latency to the process. Taking the second level name system out of the equation would result in a drastically different patent. The only company we’ve seen using a two-level name system these days is Google :-)

SCO Who?

We’re not a huge Akamai fan. You could argue that it is Akamai’s numerous lawsuits that have impeded the distribution of content on the Internet. Even if Limelight is able to defend their system, they are still incurring the cost of a large legal battle. This legal battle doesn’t seem to have impacted Akamai. Today they announced that they had beat the Street’s estimate and growth was up 46% year over year.

Location, Location, Location

One important aspect to consider is that the trial is being held in Massachusetts, the home of Akamai and more importantly, MIT (the patent owner).

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