The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s judgment of invalidity and grant of summary judgment of noninfringement, concluding that even if excluded portions of expert testimony were considered, the judgments would remain proper. Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. MediaPointe, Inc., AMHC, Inc., Case No. 24-1571 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 25, 2025) (Taranto, Stoll, Cunningham, JJ.)
AMHC owns two patents that address systems and methods for efficiently routing streamed media content over the internet using an “intelligent distribution network” that centrally manages requests for streamed media from geographically dispersed users to mitigate bandwidth problems inherent in transmitting large volumes of data. Akamai sued AMHC and its subsidiary MediaPointe (collectively, MediaPointe) seeking a declaratory judgment of noninfringement for both patents. MediaPointe counterclaimed for infringement of both patents, after which Akamai counterclaimed for declaratory judgment of invalidity of all claims of both patents.
At the claim construction stage, the district court determined that claim limitations using “optimal/best” language were invalid for indefiniteness because the specification failed to provide a procedure or boundaries to determine what is “optimal/best.” For the remaining asserted claims, the district court granted summary judgment of noninfringement. In doing so, the district court:
- Excluded as untimely presented key portions of MediaPointe’s technical expert’s testimony, without which MediaPointe could not reasonably establish infringement
- Ruled that even if the testimony was considered, the record entitled Akamai to summary judgment of noninfringement.
MediaPointe appealed.
MediaPointe contended that the claims using “optimal/best” language were not indefinite, arguing that the requirement to use measurable performance data (specifically “trace-route results”) provided an objective standard. The Federal Circuit disagreed, finding that this requirement did not supply a reasonably clear and exclusive definition of “optimal/best.” The Court explained that the “trace-route results” requirement was not sufficiently clear because multiple methods could be used to determine compliance, and the patent offered no guidance on which measures to apply.
MediaPointe also challenged the summary judgment of noninfringement for the remaining claims, arguing that the district court applied an improperly narrow construction instead of the ordinary meaning of the disputed limitation. The Federal Circuit rejected this argument, finding that a skilled artisan would not have reasonably understood the claim language more broadly and that the district court’s construction was correct in light of the patent’s context. The Court concluded that because there was no evidence that Akamai’s system met this narrower limitation, even considering the excluded expert testimony, there was no triable issue of fact and no reasonable jury could find infringement.
The Federal Circuit therefore affirmed the district court’s judgment.
