Netlist Wins $118 Million in Second Patent Infringement Trial Against Samsung

[Nomad76]

Netlist, Inc. today announced that it won a $118 million damages award against Samsung Electronics Co., LTD., Samsung Electronics America, Inc., and Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. (together "Samsung") in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The award resulted from a jury trial which involved three Netlist patents: U.S. Patent Nos. 7,619,912, 11,093,417 and 10,268,608. The infringing products were all Samsung DDR4 RDIMMs and DDR4 LRDIMMs. Netlist filed the complaint against Samsung in August 2022.

The federal jury's unanimous verdict confirmed that all three Netlist patents had been infringed by Samsung, that none of the patents were invalid, that Samsung willfully infringed those patents, and that money damages were owed to Netlist for the infringement of all three patents.



C.K. Hong, Netlist's Chief Executive Officer, said, "In the past 19 months three separate juries have awarded Netlist $866 million in damages for the willful infringement of our patents. These verdicts are among the largest in the semiconductor industry during this period and highlight the tremendous value of our intellectual property. Exposure to our patents continues to accumulate as volume of memory products for AI see explosive growth. Netlist is committed to securing fair value for the unauthorized use of our patents."

Additional information about Netlist, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. LTD., et. al., EDTX Case 2:22-cv-00293-JRG is available through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) service.

Netlist previously received two separate jury awards for the willful infringement of its patents. In April 2023, Netlist won a $303 million damages award against Samsung, and in May 2024, Netlist won a $445 million damages award against Micron Technology, Inc., Micron Semiconductor Products, Inc. and Micron Technology Texas LLC.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[NoneRain]

Wikipedia says Netlist reported $142.4 million in revenue in 2021.
It has secured $866 million in damages awards since 2022.

Those patents are definitely paying off lol

 

[Chrispy_]

As far as I'm concerned, memory manufacturers can litigate against other until the end of time.

They lost the trust and sympathy of the world when they were convicted for operating an international price-fixing cartel. "Innocent until proven guilty" falls apart after your second conviction and the outcome of a third class-action lawsuit filed against Samsung, Hynix, and Micron.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Eastern District of Texas

I know that the EFF will watch closely. In the past, before a court ruling, that was the hot spot for patents that never should have been granted!

 

[lexluthermiester]

In this situation, I agree with the jury. Samsung crossed the line, they needed this bit of smack-down. Watch them appeal though.

 

[mechtech]

As far as I'm concerned, memory manufacturers can litigate against other until the end of time.

They lost the trust and sympathy of the world when they were convicted for operating an international price-fixing cartel. "Innocent until proven guilty" falls apart after your second conviction and the outcome of a third class-action lawsuit filed against Samsung, Hynix, and Micron.

Ya I remember paying almost $200 for a stick of ddr-400 512MB circa 2003 then they were found guilty and it dropped to $75 or something.

 

[fec32a4de]

An odd press release.

I'm not criticizing TPU.
I'm criticizing Netlist

You typically don't publish court wins or losses in a press release.

Yeah it's in the investors section. No, you don't typically make it easy to find.

Either it makes you look like an asshole if you won (even if you were the one who was wronged) or makes you look like a gloating asshole if you won.

Guess they bought into "any PR is good PR" nonsense.

Anyone working PR knows that bad PR = you're going down or you're fucked.

Now with this PR (public relations) and PR (press release) companies will know to avoid them at all costs and avoid their patents.

TL;DR don't tell the world you shit your pants. People will avoid you.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I'm criticizing Netlist

Why? Their claim is legitimate, Samsung infringed willfully and deliberately..

companies will know to avoid them at all costs and avoid their patents.

Or to simply license them properly.

 

[Chrispy_]

As far as I'm concerned, memory manufacturers can litigate against other until the end of time.

They lost the trust and sympathy of the world when they were convicted for operating an international price-fixing cartel. "Innocent until proven guilty" falls apart after your second conviction and the outcome of a third class-action lawsuit filed against Samsung, Hynix, and Micron.

Yeah, they're entering round three so clearly they keep crossing the line and the penalties from these various lawsuits aren't nearly large enough.

slap a couple of zeros on the end and see if that makes them stop breaking laws.

I'm sure this particular lawsuit is more patent abuse than anti-cartel rulings, but my point is that all the major players in the game are very dirty and deserving of their misfortunes, whether directly or indirectly.

 

[de.das.dude]

In this situation, I agree with the jury. Samsung crossed the line, they needed this bit of smack-down. Watch them appeal though.

often big corpo companies like these think that it will be less hassle and cheaper for them to infringe on things and just reach a settlement later on. Which is true, $118mil is a drop in the bucket for guys like these.

I was working on something to save my company around 2mil a year on licensing fees and they were like why even bother with this much effort for *only* 2 mil. These guys run on a different scale.

I wish fines like these were more attuned to the size of the company than the actual losses encountered by the victims, that would prevent these big corpos doing what ever they like. Samsung electronics alone made 11.857 billion in net income alone.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

I just hope that this isn't one of those patents that should have been immediately denied by the USPTO.

That was a major problem in the '00s. The same thing has happened in the 2010s.

 

[Tomorrow]

Anyone else saw Netlist logo on the thumbnail and thought of this?

Spoiler

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

TLDR; you play with fire, you get burned for it. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.