A $303 million fine was imposed on Samsung by a federal jury in the United States as the company was sued by Netlist, a California-based firm, for allegedly infringing on semiconductor memory chip patents.
Samsung went to the US Patent Trial and Appeal board against that decision and has now come out on top. The US Patent Trial and Appeal Board has dismissed Netlist's claims against Samsung, and cleared the company of the $303 million fine.
Samsung's off the hook for $303 million
The legal controversy between Samsung and Netlist goes back to 2015. Netlist was founded by a former LG semiconductor employee and owns several patents on different chip technologies. It's what's commonly known as a patent troll, companies that primarily make money by winning settlements in patent disputes.
Samsung has been having to put up with dubious lawsuits from patent trolls looking for a quick payday. 404 such lawsuits have been filed against Samsung in the US over the past five years alone. Netlist isn't just accusing Samsung of patent infringement, it's also made similar accusations against Google, SK Hynix, and Micron.
Samsung inked a $25 million license agreement with Netlist in 2015 for memory solutions production. Once the agreement expired, even though Netlist wished to renew the arrangement, Samsung chose not to proceed. Since then, Netlist has accused Samsung of infringing its patents on high-performance memory chips, including DDR4, DDR5, and HBM solutions. Samsung has maintained that its technology works differently than what Netlist has patented.
The US Patent Trial and Appeal Board has nullified Netlist's two DRAM chip module patents. It invalidated the company's three other patents on memory chips back in December last year, meaning that Samsung no longer has to pay the $303 million fine. However, Netlist is expected to appeal this decision.
