Squires Orders Probe of Axed Patent Tied to $170 Million Verdict

US Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires ordered a legal review of a tribunal’s decision to invalidate a patent that was at the center of a $170 million jury verdict against GoDaddy.com LLC.

The agency’s Delegated Rehearing Panel should take a second look at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s January decision invalidating Express Mobile Inc.'s US Patent No. 7,594,168 because the tribunal gave “no explanation” for why it diverged from the verdict based on the same or substantially same evidence, Squires said in the May 1 order.

He added that the PTAB panel effectively disregarded his ...