Sterne Kessler Client Netlist Negotiates Five-Year Patent Alliance with Samsung
A cross-practice team at Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox served as lead U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) counsel to Netlist, Inc. (OTCQB: NLST) in a patent infringement case against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. involving advanced memory technology. After nearly a year of litigation in the ITC, Netlist has now reached a comprehensive settlement with Samsung. A new five-year deal includes a patent cross license agreement between the two companies under which Samsung has a license to Netlist’s complete patent portfolio, including its server DIMM and High Bandwidth Memory technologies.
In total, the agreement could mean as much as $898 million in patent licensing fees paid to Netlist over the five-year term, as well as a new strategic supply agreement under which Samsung will supply up to $1.5B of DRAM and NAND products to Netlist over the next five years. Samsung will also purchase 10 million shares of Netlist common stock. As a result of the deal, the two companies have settled pending litigation matters, including actions before the U.S. ITC and in the Eastern District of Texas. However, Netlist will continue defending its patents in connection with CAFC appeals, IPR proceedings and district court actions involving third parties manufacturing or selling non-Samsung products.
