Step to it – Supreme Court tightens standard for induced patent infringement

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Abstract: In recent years, patent holders have increasingly pursued lawsuits against defendants who didn’t necessarily directly infringe the patents themselves. Those cases just became a lot harder to win, thanks to a unanimous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. In a recent case involving a patent for a method of delivering electronic data using a content delivery network, the Supreme Court held that liability for inducement must be based on direct infringement. In the absence of direct infringement, there could be no inducement of infringement. This article examines the Court’s reasoning, while a sidebar discusses the outcome of the defendant’s request to have the Court review the lower court’s rule for direct infringement. Limelight Networks, Inc. v. Akamai Technologies, Inc., No. 12-786, June 2, 2014 (Supreme Court) Muniauction, Inc. v. Thomson Corp., No. 2007-1485, July 14, 2008 (Fed. Cir.)