I was confused by that as well. I agreed that, from what I read, that they made the plaintiff's arguments look quite silly. I would say the plaintiff's lawyer half argued Newegg's case for them with his whole a patent is still valid if prior art was a secret thing.

My current thought was they planned to appeal from the beginning to get it out of that district. Why waste time in a district you know there's an automatic 80% chance you're going to lose?