Divided Infringement Cannot Support Liability for Induced Infringement

On June 2, the Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in Limelight Networks, Inc. v. Akamai Technologies, Inc., rejecting the Federal Circuit’s finding that a defendant that performs some steps of a method patent and encourages others to perform the rest can be liable for induced infringement even if no party is liable for direct infringement.  In particular, the Court held that, contrary to the previous Federal Circuit law, there can be no inducement to infringe where two or more parties separately perform steps that would constitute direct infringement if performed by a single party.

READ: Divided Infringement Cannot Support Liability for Induced Infringement