Samsung Electronics Ordered to Pay 166 Billion KRW to US Netlist in Patent Lawsuit Verdict

Samsung Electronics has been ordered by a jury to pay $118 million (approximately 166 billion KRW) in damages to U.S. semiconductor company Netlist in a patent infringement lawsuit, major foreign media reported on the 22nd (local time).

According to the reports, a federal court jury in Marshall, Texas, ruled on the same day regarding the patent lawsuit between the two companies over data processing improvement technology for high-performance memory products. The jury found Samsung Electronics' patent infringement to be willful, and foreign media noted that the judge may increase the payment amount up to three times.

Reuters Yonhap News

Earlier, in 2021, Netlist filed a lawsuit claiming that Samsung Electronics' memory technology used in cloud computing servers infringed on its patents. Netlist argued that Samsung Electronics took its technology after project collaboration, which enhances the efficiency of memory modules to extract useful information from large amounts of data in a short time. On the other hand, Samsung Electronics countered that the patent is invalid and that its technology operates differently from Netlist's patented invention.

Netlist, headquartered in Irvine, California, was founded by CEO Hong Chun-gi, a former LG Semiconductor employee, in 2000. Last year, Netlist also secured a ruling awarding it $303 million (approximately 400 billion KRW) in damages from Samsung Electronics in a related lawsuit. In May, Netlist received a $445 million (approximately 625 billion KRW) payment decision in a separate lawsuit against Micron over the same patent.

Samsung Electronics has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, claiming that Netlist violated its obligation to provide a fair license for technology necessary to comply with international standards.