Following the termination of its partnership with Samsung Memory Modules, memory technology company Netlist recently filed a new patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung and its distributor Avnet in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

The patent in question is U.S. Patent No. 7,289,386 (“Memory Module Decoder”), which has not been designated as a standard-essential patent (SEP) but is related to patents discussed in memory standards. The patent holder, Netlist, is seeking damages from Samsung and a permanent injunction.

Netlist is a California-based company specializing in the design and manufacture of products for the cloud computing, virtualization, and high-performance computing markets, including memory modules. Memory modules are printed circuit boards containing multiple memory devices, widely used in servers supporting cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and other data-intensive applications, as well as in consumer applications such as personal computers and laptops.

The lawsuit reportedly stems from the breakdown of a commercial partnership between Samsung and Netlist that began in 2015. Under the terms of the “Joint Development and Licensing Agreement” signed by the two parties, Samsung utilized Netlist's technology to develop products, and in return, Samsung was supposed to supply Netlist with certain related products at competitive prices. The complaint states: “Samsung failed to honor its commitments and repeatedly failed to fulfill Netlist's product orders.” In July 2020, Netlist terminated the agreement, a decision later upheld by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in 2021. Samsung appealed the termination decision, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals partially upheld its appeal. However, following a jury trial in May 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that Netlist's interpretation of the supply terms in the agreement was correct and found that Samsung's violation of those terms constituted a “material breach.”

Netlist and Samsung have previously been involved in multiple patent disputes.

In April 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that Samsung had willfully infringed five of its patents and ordered Samsung to pay Netlist over $300 million in damages.

In October 2023, Samsung filed a counterclaim against Netlist in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging that it had not infringed Netlist's patents.

In November 2024, a federal jury in Marshall, Texas, ruled that Samsung had lost the patent litigation over data processing technology for high-performance memory products and must pay Netlist $118 million.