Akamai Tech. v. Cable & Wireless Internet Services

• Decision Date: 15 September 2003
• Docket Number: No. 03-1007.,03-1007.
• Citation: 344 F.3d 1186
• Parties: Akamai Technologies, Inc. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Cable & Wireless Internet Services, Inc., Defendant-Appellant, and Kinetech, Inc., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

344 F.3d 1186

Akamai Technologies, Inc. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Cable & Wireless Internet Services, Inc., Defendant-Appellant, and Kinetech, Inc., Defendant.

No. 03-1007.

United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit.

Decided: September 15, 2003.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied November 13, 2003.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Mark T. Banner, Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., of Chicago, Illinois, argued for plaintiffs-appellees. With him on the brief were Pamela B. Krupka, of Washington, DC; and Aimee M. Boss, of Chicago, Illinois.

Arthur B. Wineburg, Pillsbury Winthrop LLP, of McLean, Virginia, argued for defendant-appellant. With him on the brief were Susan T. Brown, Daniel E. Yonan, of McLean, Virginia, and Brian J. Beatus, of Palo Alto, California. Of counsel were Brian Siritzky, Pillsbury Winthrop, LLP, of McLean, Virginia; and Eileen M. Herlihy and John T. Bennett, Palmer & Dodge LLP, of Boston, Massachusetts.

Before NEWMAN, GAJARSA, and DYK, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the court by Circuit Judge GAJARSA. Opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part by Circuit Judge PAULINE NEWMAN.

GAJARSA, Circuit Judge.

Defendant-Appellant, Cable & Wireless Internet Services, Inc. ("C & W"), appeals the orders of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts: (1) denying C & W's motion for judgment as a matter of law challenging the jury verdict that claims 1, 3, 5, and 9 of U.S. Patent No. 6,108,703 ("the '703 patent") are valid and infringed; and (2) granting a permanent injunction based upon the jury verdict. Akamai Techs., Inc. v. Cable & Wireless Internet Serv., Inc., 2002 WL 1949231, No. 00-CV-11851 (D. Mass. May 24 and Aug. 21, 2002). Because claims 1 and 3, properly construed, are anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 6,185,598 ("the '598 patent") and are therefore invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 102, we reverse the district court's denial of C & W's motion for judgment as a matter of law with respect to claims 1 and 3 and vacate that portion of the permanent injunction. We affirm the district court's denial of C & W's motion for judgment as a matter of law with respect to the validity of claims 5 and 9 because those claims, properly construed, are not invalid. We also affirm the district court's denial of C & W's motion for judgment as a matter of law with respect to infringement of claim 9 because substantial evidence supports the jury's verdict of infringement. In view of our holding, we remand to the district court to review the scope of the permanent injunction.

I. BACKGROUND

The present appeal concerns technology for alleviating Internet congestion. To better understand the present dispute, a general overview of the relevant technology follows. Generally, people share information, i.e., "content," over the Internet through web pages. To look at web pages, a computer user accesses the Internet through a browser, e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer® or Netscape Navigator®. These browsers display web pages stored on a network of servers commonly referred to as the Internet. To access the web pages, a computer user enters into the browser a web page address, or uniform resource locator ("URL"). The URL is typically a string of characters, e.g., www.fedcir.gov. This URL has a corresponding unique numerical address, e.g., 156.119.80.10, called an Internet Protocol ("IP") address. When a user enters a URL into the browser, a domain name service ("DNS") searches for the corresponding IP address to properly locate the web page to be displayed. The DNS is administered by a separate network of computers distributed throughout, and connected to, the Internet. These computers are commonly referred to as DNS servers. In short, a DNS server translates the URL into the proper IP address, thereby informing the user's computer where the host server for the web page www.fedcir.gov is located, a process commonly referred to as "resolving." The user's computer then sends the web page request to the host server, or origin server. An origin server is a computer associated with the IP address that receives all web page requests and is responsible for responding to such requests. In the early stages of the Internet, the origin server was also the server that stored the actual web page in its entirety. Thus, in response to a request from a user, the origin server would provide the web page to the user's browser. Internet congestion problems quickly surfaced in this system when numerous requests for the same web page were received by the origin server at the same time.

This problem is exacerbated by the nature of web pages. A typical web page has a Hypertext Markup Language ("HTML") base document, or "container" document, with "embedded objects," such as graphics files, sound files, and text files. Embedded objects are separate digital computer files stored on servers that appear as part of the web page. These embedded objects must be requested from the origin server individually. Thus, each embedded object often has its own URL. To receive the entire web page, including the container document and the embedded objects, the user's web browser must request the web page and each embedded object. Thus, for example, if a particular web page has nine embedded objects, a web browser must make ten requests to receive the entire web page: one for the container document and nine for the embedded objects.

There have been numerous attempts to alleviate Internet congestion, including methods commonly referred to as "caching," "mirroring," and "redirection." "Caching" is a solution that stores web pages at various computers other than the origin server. When a request is made from a web browser, the cache computers intercept the request, facilitate retrieval of the web page from the origin server, and simultaneously save a copy of the web page on the cache computer. The next time a similar request is made, the cache computer, as opposed to the origin computer, can provide the web page to the user. "Mirroring" is another solution, similar to caching, except that the origin owner, or a third party, provides additional servers throughout the Internet that contain an exact copy of the entire web page located on the origin server. This allows a company, for example, to place servers in Europe to handle European Internet traffic.

"Redirection" is yet another solution in which the origin server, upon a request from a user, redirects the request to another server to handle the request. Redirection also often utilizes a process called "load balancing," or "server selection." Load balancing is often effected through a software package designed to locate the optimum origin servers and alternate servers for the quickest and most efficient delivery and display of the various container documents and embedded objects. Load balancing software locates the optimum server location based on criteria such as distance from the requesting location and congestion or traffic through the various servers.

Load balancing software was also known prior to the '703 patent. For example, Cisco Systems, Inc. marketed and sold a product by the name of "Distributed Director," which included server selection software that located the optimum server to provide requested information. The server selection software could be placed at either the DNS servers or the content provider servers. The Distributed Director product was disclosed in a White Paper dated February 21, 1997 and in U.S. Patent No. 6,178,160 ("the '160 patent"). Both the White Paper and the '160 patent are prior art to the '703 patent. The Distributed Director product, however, utilized this software in conjunction with a mirroring system in which a particular provider's complete web page was simultaneously stored on a number of servers located in different locations throughout the Internet. Mirroring had many drawbacks, including the need to synchronize continuously the web page on the various servers throughout the network. This added extra expenses and contributed to congestion on the Internet.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the assignee of the '703 patent directed to a "global hosting system" and methods for decreasing congestion and delay in accessing web pages on the Internet. Akamai Technologies, Inc. is the exclusive licensee of the '703 patent.¹ The '703 patent was filed on May 19, 1999, and issued on August 22, 2000. The '703 patent discloses and claims web page content delivery systems and methods utilizing separate sets of servers to provide various aspects of a single web page: a set of content provider servers (origin servers), and a set of alternate servers. The origin servers provide the container document, i.e., the standard aspects of a given web page that do not change frequently. The alternate servers provide the often changing embedded objects. The '703 patent also discloses use of a load balancing software package to locate the optimum origin servers and alternate servers for the quickest and most efficient delivery and display of the various container documents and embedded objects.

Independent claim 1, which is representative, reads:

1. A distributed hosting framework operative in a computer network in which users of client machines connect to a content provider server, the framework comprising:

a routine for modifying at least one embedded object URL of a web page to include a hostname pretended to a domain name and path;

a set of content servers, distinct from the content provider server, for hosting at least some of the embedded objects of web pages that are normally hosted by the content provider server;

at least one first level name server that provides a first level domain name service (DNS) resolution; and at least one second level name server that provides a second level domain name service (DNS) resolution;

wherein in response to requests for the web page, generated by the client machines the web page...