Joint Patent Infringement Case moving towards Supreme Court Review

The case of Limelight Networks, Inc. v. Akamai Technologies, Inc., Docket Nos. 12-786 and 12-960 (Supreme Court 2013) will attempt to answer the question of “”Whether the Federal Circuit erred in holding that a defendant may be held liable for inducing patent infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b) even though no one has committed direct infringement under § 271(a).”
Direct infringement means that one party has infringed at least one claim of a patent by performing each element in the claim. Joint infringement means that two or more parties, jointly, performed each element of the claim thereby leading to infringement. PatentlyO has a good discussion here.