Netlist Patent With LRDIMM Claims Confirmed in Reexamination
April 15 2014 - 8:30AM
Marketwired
Netlist Patent With LRDIMM Claims Confirmed in Reexamination
U.S. Patent Examiner Closes Prosecution on '912 Patent With 90%
of Claims Patentable
IRVINE, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 15, 2014) - Netlist, Inc.
(NASDAQ: NLST), a leading provider of high performance memory
solutions for the cloud computing and storage markets, announced
today that the Examiner in the consolidated reexamination of U.S.
Pat. No. 7,619,912 ("'912 Patent") issued an Action Closing
Prosecution ("ACP"), confirming the patentability of 92 claims
related to LRDIMM. The reexaminations were brought in the
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by Google Inc.,
Inphi Corporation, and Smart Modular Technologies.
The 92 patentable claims are generally directed to the
fundamental concept of rank multiplication which is integral to the
design of LRDIMMs. Earlier this year, the Patent Trial and
Appeal Board ("PTAB") issued a decision upholding the validity of
all 60 claims in the related reexamination of U.S. Pat. No.
7,532,537 ("'537 Patent") brought by Inphi. The '537 patent
claims also cover fundamental aspects of LRDIMM.
"We are pleased that the Examiner has confirmed the
patentability of these important claims in the '912 Patent," said
Netlist Vice President of Intellectual Property and Licensing, Noel
Whitley. "This action by the USPTO represents another
important confirmation of Netlist's industry-leading patent
portfolio for high performance server memory. We've spent many
years and invested significant resources defending our Intellectual
Property against challenges from determined opponents. We're
gratified that the USPTO continues to confirm key patents despite
these challenges."
In the most recent action, the Examiner considered and
ultimately rejected more than twenty different grounds of rejection
proposed by Google, Inphi, and Smart Modular in concluding that the
92 claims are patentable, while maintaining the rejection of 11
other claims. The ACP marks the end of the prosecution stage
of the consolidated reexamination that has lasted nearly 4 years
and amassed a written record of over ten thousand pages. The
parties will next have the opportunity to appeal the Examiner's
findings to the Patent Trial and Appeals Board later this
year. The '912 Patent is also the subject of litigation
between Netlist and Inphi in the Central District of California,
and between Netlist and Google in the Northern District of
California. Both litigations have been stayed pending the
outcome of this and other reexamination proceedings.
About Netlist:
Netlist, Inc. designs and manufactures high-performance,
logic-based memory subsystems for server and storage applications
for cloud computing. Netlist's flagship products include
HyperCloud®, a patented memory technology that breaks traditional
performance barriers, NVvault™ and EXPRESSvault™ family of products
that significantly accelerate system performance and provide
mission critical fault tolerance, and a broad portfolio of
industrial Flash and specialty memory subsystems including VLP
(very low profile) DIMMs and Planar-X RDIMMs. Netlist has steadily
invested in and grown its IP portfolio, which now includes 43
issued patents and more than 30 U.S. and foreign pending patent
applications in the areas of high performance memory and hybrid
memory technologies.
Netlist develops technology solutions for customer applications
in which high-speed, high-capacity, small form factor and efficient
heat dissipation are key requirements for system memory. These
customers include OEMs that design and build tower, rack-mounted,
and blade servers, high-performance computing clusters, engineering
workstations and telecommunications equipment. Founded in 2000,
Netlist is headquartered in Irvine, CA with manufacturing
facilities in Suzhou, People's Republic of China. Learn more at
www.netlist.com.
Safe Harbor
Statement: This news release contains forward-looking
statements regarding future events and the future performance of
Netlist. These forward-looking statements involve risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those expected or projected. These risks and uncertainties
include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the launch
and commercial success of our products, programs and technologies;
the success of product partnerships; continuing development,
qualification and volume production of EXPRESSvault™, NVvault™,
HyperCloud® and VLP Planar-X RDIMM; the timing and magnitude of the
anticipated decrease in sales to our key customer; our ability to
leverage our NVvault™ technology in a more diverse customer base;
the rapidly-changing nature of technology; risks associated with
intellectual property, including patent infringement litigation
against us as well as the costs and unpredictability of litigation
over infringement of our intellectual property and the possibility
of our patents being reexamined by the United States Patent and
Trademark office; volatility in the pricing of DRAM ICs and NAND;
changes in and uncertainty of customer acceptance of, and demand
for, our existing products and products under development,
including uncertainty of and/or delays in product orders and
product qualifications; delays in the Company's and its customers'
product releases and development; introductions of new products by
competitors; changes in end-user demand for technology solutions;
the Company's ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; the
Company's reliance on suppliers of critical components and vendors
in the supply chain; fluctuations in the market price of critical
components; evolving industry standards; and the political and
regulatory environment in the People's Republic of China. Other
risks and uncertainties are described in the Company's annual
report on Form 10-K filed on March 18, 2014, and subsequent filings
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made by the
Company from time to time. Except as required by law, Netlist
undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
For more information, please contact: Brainerd Communicators,
Inc. Corey Kinger/Mike Smargiassi NLST@braincomm.com (212) 986-6667
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