Micron Ordered to Pay $445 Million in Damages for Patent Infringement

In a recent court ruling, Micron has been ordered to pay a whopping $445 million in damages for infringing on the patent rights of Netlist, a California-based memory technology company known for designing high-performance SSDs and memory subsystems. The judge in the case has the authority to potentially triple the damages, which could result in over $1 billion in total.

Patents at the Center of the Dispute

The patents in question, US Patent numbers 7,619,912 and 11,093,417, pertain to a memory module decoder and data buffering of memory modules, respectively. The jury awarded $425 million for the infringement of the first patent and $20 million for the infringement of the second. Both patents focus on enhancing the performance and capacity of DRAM memory modules in computer systems.

This is not the first time that Netlist has emerged victorious in a patent infringement lawsuit. In a previous case in 2023, the company was awarded $303 million after a jury found Samsung guilty of infringing on its patents. However, the litigation in that particular case is still ongoing. Additionally, in April, the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruled the patents under dispute in the current case as invalid.

During the trial, Micron argued that the ‘912 patent held by Netlist had been invalidated by the PTAB, and the company intends to appeal the ruling. Despite the hefty $445 million damages, Micron is not in financial distress. The company is experiencing growth, particularly in its enterprise memory products, contributing to a substantial increase in revenue in the latest quarter. With a reported quarterly revenue of $5.82 billion, Micron is in a strong position to handle legal challenges.

The recent ruling in favor of Netlist against Micron highlights the importance of respecting intellectual property rights in the tech industry. Patent infringement cases can have significant financial implications for companies found guilty of violations. It is essential for companies to conduct thorough patent searches and ensure they are not infringing on existing patents to avoid costly litigation.