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Update 5/24 at 7am: Adds Micron comment.
Netlist (OTCQB:NLST) was awarded a $445 million verdict by a jury in an ongoing patent dispute with Micron (NASDAQ:MU). Netlist pared earlier gains of as much as 43% and is now down 1.7%.
A jury in an Eastern District of Texas court awarded the $445 million verdict on Thursday, according to a court filing. The verdict was regarding patents 912 and 417.
"This verdict marks the second time in just over a year that a jury has found willful infringement of our patents by a global semiconductor manufacturer," C.K. Hong, Netlist's CEO said in a statement on Friday, "Juries fundamentally understand that the intentional unauthorized use of intellectual property created by others is improper. The $445 million awarded for past damages from Micron's unauthorized use underscores the immense value of Netlist's technology."
Samsung (OTCPK:SSNLF) and Netlist (OTCQB:NLST) have been battling over rights to patent memory module technologies since a 2015 joint development and licensing agreement encountered some problems about three years ago. Netlist formally ended the licensing agreement in mid-2020. Netlist is also involved in patent lawsuits with Micron (MU) and Google (GOOG) over the patents.
Micron (MU) said it plans to appeal the jury's verdict.
"Micron respectfully disagrees with the jury’s verdict," Micron said in a statement emailed to Seeking Alpha late Thursday. "The vast majority of damages awarded by the jury were based on Netlist’s ’912 patent, which was already declared invalid by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office over a month before this trial (IPR2022-00615, Paper 96). The jury’s verdict does not affect the prior ruling that Netlist’s patent is invalid."
"Netlist’s ’417 patent, which reflects less than 5% of the damages, is also under review by the patent office after a determination that there is a reasonable likelihood it is also invalid (IPR2023-01141, Paper 7)," Micron added in the statement.
A jury in the same Marshall, Texas court last April awarded Netlist $303 million in a patent fight with Samsung (OTCPK:SSNLF).
Last month, The Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled that claim 16 of the ’912 patent is unpatentable. The patent infringement claim is related to printed circuit boards, memory modules and double-date-rated, or DDR, memory.