IRVINE, Calif., March 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Netlist, Inc.
(NASDAQ: NLST), a leading provider of high performance and hybrid
memory solutions for the cloud computing and storage markets, today
reiterated that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has
confirmed the validity of U.S. Patent Nos. 8,001,434 and 8,359,501
following Inter Partes Reviews (IPRs) initiated by SanDisk and
Smart Modular Technologies. Netlist's '434 and '501 patents
cover self-test technologies widely used in high-performance memory
modules, including LRDIMM, SSDs, and Storage Class Memory.
The PTAB has now conducted two full reviews of both patents and
twice confirmed their validity. In its December, 2015
decisions on the SanDisk IPRs, the PTAB confirmed the validity of
17 total claims from the '434 and '501: claims 2, 5, 6, 7-13,
17, 18, 26 and 35 from the '434, and claims 4, 9, and 10 from the
'501.
Smart Modular filed two IPR petitions against each of the '434
and '501 patents. The PTAB denied two of the petitions at the
outset, one against each patent, refusing to institute reviews
based on the arguments put forward by Smart Modular in its
petitions. The PTAB did institute reviews based on the other
two petitions. In final written decisions issued earlier this
month, the PTAB confirmed all of the claims under review in the
'434 and '501 patents, finding that Smart Modular failed in its
attempt to invalidate any of the claims in either patent.
Netlist has posted the final written decision from the PTAB
on its website in the investor relations section and provided
additional comments on the validity of specific claims in this
release to clarify actual events and address recent reports.
"We are very pleased with the remarkable success we've had
defending our intellectual property against numerous challenges
over many years," said Noel Whitley,
Netlist's Vice President, Intellectual Property and Licensing.
"Smart Modular challenged our self-test patents four times
using the IPR process and failed to invalidate a single claim of
either patent."
The '434 and '501 patents are part of a seven-patent lawsuit
Netlist filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District
of California against the
ULLtraDIMM product from SanDisk and Diablo Technologies. In
response to the lawsuit, SanDisk, Diablo and Smart Modular filed a total of 17
IPRs attempting to invalidate the seven Netlist patents. With
these latest results, Netlist has now been successful in defending
five of the seven asserted patents.
Contrary to recent reports, over 90 claims related to LRDIMM
have been confirmed by the examiner in the consolidated
reexamination of Netlist's U.S. Patent No. 7,619,912 brought by
Google, Inphi Corporation, and Smart Modular. The '912
reexamination is now on appeal at the PTAB with a decision expected
later this year.
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. A forward‑looking statement is neither a
prediction nor a guarantee of future events or circumstances and is
based on currently available market, operating, financial and
competitive information and assumptions. Forward-looking statements
involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those expected or projected, including,
among others, risks associated with the launch and commercial
success of our products, programs and technologies; the success of
product, joint development and licensing partnerships; continuing
development, qualification and volume production of HyperVault™,
EXPRESSvault™, NVvault®, HyperCloud® and VLP Planar-X RDIMM;
the timing and magnitude of the continued decrease in our sales;
our ability to leverage our NVvault® and EXPRESSvault™ technology
in a more diverse customer base; our need to raise additional
capital and our ability to obtain financing when necessary; 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 or reviewed by the
United States Patent and Trademark office and the Patent Trial and
Appeal Board; volatility in the pricing of DRAM ICs and NAND flash;
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 our and our customers' product
releases and development; introductions of new products by
competitors; changes in end-user demand for technology solutions;
our ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; our reliance
on suppliers of critical components and vendors in the supply
chain; fluctuations in the market price of critical components;
evolving industry standards; the political and regulatory
environment in the People's Republic of
China; and general economic and market conditions. Other
risks and uncertainties are described in our annual report on Form
10-K filed on March 4, 2016, and
subsequent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
we make from time to time. Except as required by law, we undertake
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.
Mike Smargiassi/Jenny Perales
NLST@braincomm.com
(212) 986-6667
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SOURCE Netlist, Inc.