The Battle Road Tech Index™ gained 6.1 percent for the week ended July 9, 2010, closing at 1676. All but one (Verizon (VZ)) of the 25 Index components rose in value for the week. Year-to-date, the index is down 0.2 percent, having started at a value of 1680.

Research in Motion (RIMM), Akamai (AKAM), and Netflix (NFLX) were notable movers for the week:

Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM, $53.23) gained 10.8 percent for the week following news that wireless patent house NTP is suing Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), and others for alleged violations of NTP’s smartphone patents. NTP won a $612.5 million suit against RIMM in 2006 over wireless email patents, the subject of the current litigation as well. This invites the possibility that those using the Android operating system, including Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and HTC, could be forced to pay royalties to NTP. Research in Motion has already signed a license with NTP, sheltering the company from the wave of lawsuits.

Shares of Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM, $43.47) rose 9.9 percent this week as Q3 got underway. Akamai delivers websites and content for e-commerce vendors, cloud computing providers, and video sites, and usage of these services continues to rise. Akamai is well-positioned as the leader of the content delivery network market, and it continues to roll out new products to extend its market opportunity.

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX, $117.53) rose by 9.8 percent this week following the news that it had announced a deal to stream new content from Relativity Media several months after its release on DVD. Traditionally, Netflix was forced to wait in line until after premium payment TV services such as HBO, Showtime, and Starz had first rights to charge viewers to see the same content. The agreement suggests that Netflix subscribers may be accorded the same rights and privileges as their television pay per view and cable service cousins. Separately, Netflix shares failed to pull-back on the heels of revived postal rate increase proposals, which would presumably eat into the company’s cost of goods sold.