Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce giant, has successfully persuaded a Delaware federal court to overturn a previous jury verdict that demanded Shopify pay $40 million in damages for patent infringement related to website-building technology.

The ruling was delivered by US District Judge Richard Andrews on Friday who stated that the evidence presented was insufficient to uphold the jury’s decision that Shopify had infringed patents owned by Express Mobile, a patent-holding company.

A spokesperson for Shopify hailed the decision as “a significant victory in the battle against patent trolls.”

Express Mobile holds patents related to internet and mobile technology, developed by its founder, Steven Rempell, a former IBM engineer. The company filed a lawsuit against Shopify in 2019, alleging that Shopify’s website-building tools infringed its patents, specifically those related to software for delivering content to mobile devices.

Express Mobile has a history of suing numerous tech companies, alleging infringement of the same and other patents. Some of the tech giants it has sued include Google, Meta, and Amazon.

Last year, a federal jury ruled that Shopify was to pay Express Mobile a lump sum of $40 million for patent infringement. However, Judge Andrews declared on Friday that the verdict could not stand. He stated that there was no evidence to suggest that any Shopify merchant had enabled the features accused of infringing Express Mobile’s rights.

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