Defendant
1 case as defendant.
Weebly, Inc. is a San Francisco-based technology company that provides a platform for creating websites and online stores. Founded in 2006 by David Rusenko, Chris Fanini, and Dan Veltri, the company operates as a subsidiary of Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.), which acquired it in April 2018 for approximately $365 million in cash and stock. Prior to its acquisition, Weebly was a privately held company. At the time of the acquisition, Weebly had over 625,000 paid subscribers. A 2017 estimate placed its employee count at 310.
Weebly's core business is its web-hosting service and "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" (WYSIWYG) website builder, which allows users to create websites, blogs, and e-commerce stores using a drag-and-drop interface. The platform is designed for users without technical coding experience and supports features such as customizable templates, blogging tools, e-commerce functionalities like shopping carts and inventory management, search engine optimization (SEO) tools, and an app center for third-party integrations. Since its acquisition by Square, Weebly's technology has been integrated into the Square Online platform, aiming to provide a cohesive solution for businesses to manage both online and in-person sales.
Based on the provided data, Weebly, Inc. is an operating company that defends against patent assertions. The company has been a defendant in one tracked case and has not initiated any patent litigation as a plaintiff. This 0-to-1 plaintiff-defendant ratio is characteristic of a technology company focused on building and selling products rather than patent licensing or enforcement. The single tracked case was filed in the Northern District of California, a common venue for technology-related litigation.
Weebly was a defendant in a 2019 case brought by Express Mobile, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Express Mobile is a patent assertion entity that has sued over 95 defendants, including major technology companies like Adobe, Amazon, and Salesforce, over patents generally related to browser-based tools for building webpages. The patents asserted by Express Mobile have been described as foundational to modern "What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get" (WYSIWYG) web development technologies. In other litigation, Express Mobile has secured significant verdicts, including a $170 million jury award against GoDaddy, although other verdicts have been overturned. The case against Weebly is part of this broader assertion campaign targeting companies with website-building tools.
Express Mobile, Inc. filed a patent infringement suit against Weebly, Inc. in the California Northern District Court. The case was ultimately dismissed.