Netlist Patents Again Survive PTAB Review

IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Netlist, Inc. (NASDAQ: NLST), announced today it has prevailed against SanDisk in the Inter Partes Review (IPR) of two Netlist patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 8,001,434, and 8,359,501. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) conducted a full review of both patents and confirmed the validity of 20 patent claims related to Netlist's self-test technologies, which are widely used in high-performance memory modules, including LRDIMM and Storage Class Memory.

Netlist has asserted the '434 and '501 patents against SanDisk and Diablo Technologies as part of a seven-patent lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California against the ULLtraDIMM product. Earlier this year, the PTAB rejected multiple waves of IPR petitions filed by SanDisk and Smart Modular Technologies against three other Netlist patents asserted in the same lawsuit.

C.K. Hong, Netlist's Chief Executive Officer said, "We are very pleased to once again have our fundamental patents validated by the USPTO. Our IP portfolio is unrivaled in terms of the degree to which our patents have been tested and validated by the PTAB as well as the Federal Circuit."

With these most recent victories, a total of five Netlist patents asserted against ULLtraDIMM have survived the rigors of IPR proceedings at the USPTO. These five patents cover fundamental aspects of high-performance memory modules operating in the memory channel. In addition to the '434 and '501 self-test patents, Netlist's U.S. Patent No. 8,516,185 covers the distributed buffer architecture adopted by the industry for DDR4 LRDIMM. Netlist's U.S. Patent Nos. 8,301,833 and 8,516,187 relate to clocking and buffering techniques that are critical to the design of Non-Volatile DIMMs (NVDIMMs), such as the NVvault®, ULLtraDIMM, and Netlist's next-generation HyperVault® Storage Class Memory technology.

Other IPR proceedings remain pending against the '434 and '501 patents, which are expected to conclude early next year. Netlist's patent lawsuit against SanDisk and Diablo on the ULLtraDIMM will remain stayed until all IPR proceedings are complete.

About Netlist, Inc.

Netlist creates solutions that accelerate turning data into information. We design and manufacture controller and software-based memory solutions for our OEM and Hyperscale customers in the server and storage space. Flagship products NVvault® and EXPRESSvault™ accelerate system performance and provide mission critical fault tolerance. HyperVault®, Netlist's next-generation architecture, expands the performance and capacity of memory channel storage. The company holds a portfolio of patents, many seminal, in the area of hybrid memory, rank multiplication and load-reduction, among others. To learn more, visit 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, the launch and commercial success of our products, programs and technologies; the success of product partnerships; continuing development, qualification and volume production of HyperVault™, EXPRESSvault™, NVvault®, HyperCloud® and VLP Planar-X RDIMM; the timing and magnitude of the decrease in sales to our key customer; our ability to leverage our NVvault® and EXPRESSvault™ technology in a more diverse customer base; the rapidly-changing nature of technology; risks associated with intellectual property, including risks associated with the inherent uncertainty of the litigation process, 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 27, 2015, 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.

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