Samsung must pay $118 million for Netlist patent infringement
A federal jury in Marshall, Texas, on Friday awarded computer memory company Netlist $118 million in damages against Samsung Electronics in a patent lawsuit over technology to improve data processing in high-performance memory products.
The verdict follows a $303 million judgment against Samsung for Irvine, California-based Netlist last year in a related case.
Netlist also won $445 million from chipmaker Micron in May in a separate lawsuit over some of the same patents.
Spokespeople for Samsung and Netlist did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday’s ruling. The jury also found that Samsung’s infringement was intentional, which could lead to a judge increasing the award by up to three times.
Netlist sued Samsung in 2022, claiming the Korean tech giant’s memory modules used in cloud computing servers and other data-intensive technology infringed on its patents. Netlist said its innovations increase the energy efficiency of memory modules and allow users to “extract useful information from large amounts of data in a shorter period of time.”
Samsung denied the allegations, arguing that the patents were invalid and that the technology worked differently than Netlist’s inventions.
Samsung has also filed a related lawsuit in Delaware federal court, accusing Netlist of violating an obligation to provide fair licensing of technology necessary to comply with international standards.
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