Samsung to Pay Out $303M for Memory Patent Infringement

upstart writes:

Samsung to pay out $303M for memory patent infringement:

Samsung Electronics has been stung for more than $303 million in a patent infringement case brought by US memory company Netlist.

Netlist, headquartered in Irvine, California, styles itself as a provider of high-performance modular memory subsystems. The company initially filed a complaint that Samsung had infringed on three of its patents, later amended to six [PDF]. Following a six-day trial, the jury found for Netlist in five of these and awarded a total of $303,150,000 in damages.

[...] The patents appear to apply to various aspects of DDR memory modules. According to reports, Samsung's representatives had argued that Netlist's patents were invalid because they were already covered by existing technology and that its own memory chips did not function in the same way as described by the patents, but this clearly did not sway the jurors.

[...] The company states that Samsung and Netlist were initially partners under a 2015 Joint Development and License Agreement (JDLA), which granted Samsung a five-year paid-up license to Netlist's patents.

[...] Under the terms of the agreement, Samsung was to supply Netlist certain memory products at competitive prices, but Netlist claimed Samsung repeatedly failed to honor these promises. As a result, Netlist claims, it terminated the JDLA on July 15, 2020.

Netlist alleged in its court filing that Samsung has continued to make and sell memory products "with materially the same structures" as those referenced in the patents, despite the termination of the agreement.

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