Netlist Inc. an enterprise solid state storage drive specialist has been awarded over $303 million in damages by a federal jury in Texas on April 21, over apparent patent infringement on Samsung's part. Netlist has alleged that the South Korean multinational electronics corporation had knowingly infringed on five patents, all relating to improvements in data processing within the design makeup of memory modules intended for high performance computing (HPC) purposes. The Irvine, CA-based computer-memory specialist has sued Samsung in the past - with a legal suit filed at the Federal District Court for the Central District of California.

Netlist was seemingly pleased by the verdict reached at the time (2021) when the court: "granted summary judgements in favor of Netlist and against Samsung for material breach of various obligations under the Joint Development and License Agreement (JDLA), which the parties executed in November 2015. A summary judgment is a final determination rendered by the judge and has the same force and effect as a final ruling after a jury trial in litigation."The company's statement continued: "The Court also held that Netlist properly terminated the JDLA and confirmed that Samsung no longer has a valid license to Netlist's patent portfolio. The jury is left to decide on direct damages related to the breach of contract during the trial set to commence on November 30, 2021 in the Central District of California." Past press articles have indicated that Netlist has been quite regular with litigation-related activities - it has targeted American multinational Google LLC and another rival SSD producer, SK Hynix, over alleged technology patent infringements. Samsung has faced several patent infringement cases in the United States - with a notable Supreme Court legal battle fought between it and arch rival Apple Inc. A conclusion to that case was reached by late 2016 - with Samsung escaping having to pay a fine valued at $400 million.