Dispute to continue from appeal
Samsung lost its patent lawsuit against memory module firm Netlist in the US.
Netlist said on Thursday that the United States District Court for the Central District of California entered a judgment in favor of the firm against Samsung for material breaches of obligations under their joint development and license agreement.
Netlist said the court, in its judgment, said Samsung breached its supply obligations, payment obligations and that Netlist terminated the agreement such that Samsung’s rights and license over the patents ceased.
The pair had entered into the agreement back in November 2015, Netlist said.
The company had received a total of US$230 million from Samsung for the cross-licensing deal.
The company was founded in 2000 and listed on Nasdaq. It was founded by LG Semiconductor executive CK Hong.
Netlist and Samsung began their dispute over their agreement in mid-2020.
In 2021, Netlist began filing lawsuits against companies that procure memory semiconductors from Samsung.
The South Korean tech giant retaliated by filing its own suits against Netlist to nullify the patents.
The pair’s dispute isn’t over as there is pending patent litigation between Netlist and Samsung in federal court.
Samsung was preparing to appeal against the California court’s decision as well, a person familiar with the matter said.
Meanwhile, Netlist had also had a patent dispute with SK Hynix, which was settled in April last year with a cross-licensing agreement.
