Akamai prevails in patent lawsuit

Akamai Technologies Inc. said today that it prevailed in a patent lawsuit against Limelight Networks Inc. and was awarded nearly $46 million in damages by a jury in the US District Court of Massachusetts.

Akamai of Cambridge is a global service provider for accelerating content and business processes online.

In afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Akamai shares were up $2.43, or 7.3 percent, to $35.91.

Akamai said that the jury returned a verdict today that Arizona-based Limelight is infringing the content delivery patent asserted by Akamai, and as a result, the jury awarded Akamai $45,526,946 in damages, plus interest.

An attempt to reach Limelight was not immediately successful.

The verdict, which came at the end of a three-week trial in Boston, stemmed from a lawsuit that Akamai had filed in 2006, the company said.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)