A U.S. federal jury has ordered GoDaddy to pay $170 million to California-based Express Mobile, finding that the web-hosting giant’s website-building tools infringed two of the smaller company’s patents.
The verdict, reached in Delaware federal court and made public on Friday, concluded that GoDaddy’s online design technology violated patents owned by Express Mobile covering internet and mobile website development.
Express Mobile’s attorney, Jay Nuttall, hailed the decision as “an outstanding result for our client that confirms the value of its foundational patents.”
GoDaddy, headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, said it “strongly disagrees” with the outcome and intends to “vigorously fight it in district court and on appeal, if necessary.”
The patents in question were developed by Steven Rempell, a former IBM engineer and founder of Express Mobile, based in Novato, California. The company first sued GoDaddy in 2019, claiming its website-creation tools copied its patented technology that allows users to design web pages through drag-and-drop components.
GoDaddy denied wrongdoing and argued that the patents were invalid. The company previously won a separate jury trial in 2023 involving related claims by Express Mobile.
Express Mobile has pursued similar cases against other tech firms. In 2022, it won a $40 million verdict against e-commerce platform Shopify, though that decision was later overturned by a Delaware judge.
The latest GoDaddy ruling marks one of the largest patent awards in recent years involving website-building technology and signals renewed momentum for Express Mobile’s long-running legal campaign to protect its intellectual property.
