IRVINE, Calif., June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Netlist, Inc.
(NASDAQ: NLST), today announced the Patent Trial and Appeal Board
(PTAB) issued decisions on appeal in the reexaminations of U.S.
Pat. Nos. 7,619,912 ("'912 Patent") and 7,864,627 ("'627 Patent").
The '912 and '627 Patents are generally related to the concept of
rank multiplication used in DDR3 LRDIMM.
In its decision issued yesterday, the PTAB maintained the
patentability of two original claims in the '912 Patent covering
important features of DDR3 LRDIMM designs. The remaining claims
stand rejected. In the '627 reexamination, the PTAB maintained the
Examiner's prior rejection of all claims. These reexaminations have
been pending for more than five years. Netlist asserted the '912
Patent along with other patents in 2009 in separate actions against
Google Inc. and Inphi Corporation. Both law suits are
currently stayed. The '627 Patent has never been the subject of any
litigation.
The decisions in the '912 and '627 reexaminations, where the
patents are focused more on rank multiplication, will have no
impact on Netlist's other patents directed to load reduction and
the distributed buffer architecture. Netlist holds numerous other
patents with many more claims directed to fundamental aspects of
DDR3 LRDIMM. The decisions will also have no impact on Netlist's
strong patent coverage of DDR4 LRDIMM. These patents have fared
exceptionally well in validity challenges. For example, the
reexamination of U.S. Pat. No. 7,532,537 ("'537 Patent")
successfully concluded last month, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,516,185
("'185 Patent") prevailed against two Inter Partes Review (IPR)
petitions filed last year by SanDisk and Smart Modular.
"We disagree with aspects of the PTAB's most recent decisions
and will continue to pursue what we believe are valid positions in
the '912 and '627 reexaminations," said Netlist's Vice President of
Intellectual Property and Licensing, Noel
Whitley. "In the meantime, we remain focused on capturing
licensing opportunities for DDR3 LRDIMM, past and present, as well
as the fast growing DDR4 LRDIMM market. The substantive
impact of the PTAB's decisions on the value of Netlist's overall
portfolio is nominal, and will not affect our ability to execute on
these opportunities."
The '912 and '637 reexaminations will continue with Netlist
having the option to either reopen prosecution or request rehearing
of the PTAB decisions. Once the reexamination process at the
United States Patent and Trademark Office is complete, all parties
will then have the opportunity to appeal the PTAB's decisions to
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
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.