Two-Way Media's Patent Suit Against Akamai, Limelight, AT&T
Dan Rayburn submits:
On April 11th, Colorado based Two-Way Media filed suit
against Akamai (AKAM), Limelight Networks (LLNW) and AT&T (T) over a series of
patents entitled "multicasting method and apparatus". (patent
description below) While this is just one of many patent suits taking
place in the content delivery sector, there are a few unique details
about this one to watch. For starters, Two-Way Media first filed suit
against AOL and after a successful Markman ruling in their favor, AOL
settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. That by itself does not
mean anything as it may have been easier for AOL to settle rather than
pay legal costs, but the fact they settled after a ruling is a bad sign.
Even more interesting in my eyes is that the main patent, number 5778187
was filed in 1996 and was licensed by Two-Way Media to Cable &
Wireless in the early days of the content delivery market. For those
that remember, Sandpiper and Digital Island were some of the original
CDNs that were acquired by Cable & Wireless. There is no way to
know if Cable & Wireless licensed the patents because they felt
they were valid or not, but the fact another CDN even licensed it makes
this suit even more interesting.