Lee Jae-yong Executive chairman of Samsung Electronics (photo = Yonhap news)

 

[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Jisun] Samsung Electronics won a lawsuit against U.S. semiconductor company Netlist for patents on memory semiconductor modules. Netlist, headquartered in Irvine, California, is a company founded by CEO Hong Chun-ki from LG Semiconductor.

According to foreign media and industry sources on the 3rd, the U.S. Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruled in favor of Samsung Electronics on two patent invalidity lawsuits related to memory semiconductor modules filed by Samsung Electronics on the 2nd (local time). As a result, Samsung Electronics has led to the invalidity of all five patent lawsuits that have been fought with Netlist.

The lawsuit began in 2015 when Netlist claimed violations of a joint development and license agreement signed with Samsung Electronics. Netlist also filed a lawsuit in 2021, claiming that memory technology used in Samsung Electronics' cloud computing servers violated its patents.

Netlist claimed that Samsung Electronics took the patent after the collaboration, saying that its technology increases the efficiency of the memory module to derive useful information from large amounts of data. On the other hand, Samsung Electronics countered that the Netlist's patent was invalid.

In response, a U.S. jury ruled in April last year that Samsung Electronics violated five patents on the Netlist, and in August of the same year, the court accepted the jury's verdict and ruled that Samsung Electronics should pay $303 million in compensation to the Netlist.

In protest, Samsung Electronics filed a nullification trial with the U.S. Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board for five patents, and three were previously declared invalid. As the other two cases were declared invalid this time, Samsung Electronics' claims were accepted in all cases.

Although Samsung Electronics has won the long-term patent dispute between the two companies, there is a possibility that Netlist will appeal in the future. In that case, it will be finalized by the Court of Appeals

 

 

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