October 6, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Content delivery network provider Limelight Networks (limelightnetworks.com) is reworking its CDN software for Microsoft (microsoft.com), following its February patent lawsuit loss to competing CDN provider Akamai (akamai.com), according to reports by Rich Miller on Data Center Knowledge.
Limelight has had considerable troubles with patent infringment on its CDN products. In December 2007, Level 3 filed a lawsuit against Limelight Networks for infringing on its CDN patents, accusing Limelight of using and profiting from three patents belonging to Level 3.
The company issued an SEC filing on Friday updating its agreement with Microsoft in response to February's patent lawsuit loss, where the court ordered Limelight to pay Akami a $45 million penalty for infringing its patents.
Microsoft is developing its own CDN, which will be supported by Limelight's software and engineering expertise. Last Wednesday, the two companies took into account the Akamai ruling and updated their August 2007 agreement.
In the SEC filing, Limelight agreed to license certain software to Microsoft. The company says it is developing a new version of its CDN software which it "believes is or will be non-infringing," and that this latest "Amendment provides for the implementation of a new version of the Company?s software within Microsoft?s infrastructure."
One crucial aspect that is unclear in the filing is whether or not Limelight has finished reworking its CDN software, however, the filing does suggest that Microsoft believes that this new version of Limelight's software does not infringe on Akamai's patents anymore, reports Miller.
Another issue that is not fully addressed in the filing is whether the updated software can support Limelight's own network. If it can support Limelight's network, it will lessen the consequences of Akamai patent ruling on Limelight's future operations.
This agreement between Microsoft and Limelight was included in the November 14, 2007 SEC filing, reports Miller, which calls for the ECN to be housed in Microsoft data centers, as well as a combination of Limelight facilities and third-party colocation centers.
Microsoft will decide on the exact location of nodes as well as provide the hardware, while Limelight will install the software and manage the node during its transition to Microsoft.
"As a result, Microsoft is developing its own CDN"
You need to learn how to write, you have contradicted your own statement later on in the article. MS had their own CND like you said and Limelight always provided the CDN services to their infrastructure...this was just updating the SW with the non-infringing version. posted by: Learn to Write | October 07, 2008 11:42AM
I agree the "as a result" part of that comment was a lttle confusing. And I appreciate you pointing it out. We've since edited the story a bit. No need to get nasty, mister Write. posted by: Liam Eagle | October 07, 2008 12:44PM
