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Akamai Sues Self
Nate Orenstam
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Pr-emptive Strike
 (Cambridge, Mass.) Akamai Technologies, the leading provider of Internet caching software lawsuits, today announced it's latest legal strike: the company is suing itself for infringement of its own patents. "In the interest of protecting shareholder value, we felt compelled to ascert our legal rights to, ah, ascert our legal rights," said spokesman Bill Monthly. By launching the lawsuit in Federal District Court of Boston, the company hopes to have the suit tried in a technology-friendly court. "We feel confident we have a fify-fifty chance of victory," said President Paul Sagan. "Maybe even better than that."
The company has previously been embroiled in a series of legal battles with competitors including caching companies Speedera, Digital Island and UK communications giant Cable & Wireless. "As soon as we launch any kind of lawsuit, the competitors immediately counter sue," Sagan explained. "But then we lose all control over the venue and the timing. Now we have more control over the outcome by putting the ball clearly in our court," he said.
The latest lawsuit alleges that the company's patent 6,108,703 (slightly higher in Canada) infringes on the earlier issued patents 6,108,544 and 6,108,613. "We really just did a global search and replace changing 'Internet' to 'Extranet' and adding some stuff about edge side includes," Sagan said. "It's amazing what you can get by the patent office when it's combined with hundreds of pages of legal mumbo jumbo."
About the author
Nate Orenstam is a leading J2EE programmer and consultant.
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