Netlist Prevails In Federal Circuit Appeals Of Self-Test Patents Brought By SanDisk And Smart Modular

IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Netlist, Inc. (NASDAQ: NLST), today announced the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed earlier decisions from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) confirming the validity of certain claims of Netlist's U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,001,434 ("'434 Patent") and 8,359,501 ("'501 Patent").

Netlist's '434 and '501 patents cover self-test technologies widely used in LRDIMMs, SSDs, and Storage Class Memory.  Netlist has asserted these patents as part of a seven-patent lawsuit against SanDisk and Diablo Technologies.  SanDisk and Smart Modular filed a total of six petitions for Inter Partes Review (IPR) challenging the validity of these two patents, which have now been resolved in Netlist's favor by the Federal Circuit.

Netlist has also asserted the '434 and '501 patents in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against SK hynix's LRDIMM and RDIMM enterprise memory products.  The ITC is expected to issue a final determination in its investigation of SK hynix by March 14, 2018.  Any appeals from this final determination will also be heard by the Federal Circuit.

"We are very pleased that the Federal Circuit has once again validated key patents from our portfolio covering technologies widely used in today's high-performance memory products," said Netlist's Chief Executive Officer, C.K. Hong. "These decisions bring the total to five Netlist patents that have prevailed against challenges in the PTAB and subsequent appeals to the Federal Circuit."

The parties will next have the opportunity to appeal the Federal Circuit decisions to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Petitions for writ of certiorari must be filed within 90 days from today's decisions. 

About Netlist, Inc.
Netlist is a leading provider of high-performance modular memory subsystems serving customers in diverse industries that require superior memory performance to empower critical business decisions. Flagship products NVvault® and EXPRESSvault® enable customers to accelerate data running through their servers and storage and reliably protect enterprise-level cache, metadata and log data by providing near instantaneous recovery in the event of a system failure or power outage. HybriDIMMtm, Netlist's next-generation storage class memory product, addresses the growing need for real-time analytics in Big Data applications and in-memory databases. Netlist holds a portfolio of patents, many seminal, in the areas of hybrid memory, storage class memory, rank multiplication and load reduction. Netlist is part of the Russell Microcap® Index.  To learn more, visit www.netlist.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements other than historical facts and often address future events or the future performance of Netlist. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release include express or implied statements regarding the anticipated outcome of the Final Determination by the Commissioners at the ITC. All forward-looking statements reflect management's present expectations regarding future events and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by any forward-looking statements.  Netlist can provide no assurance regarding the outcome of the final review by the Commissioners at the ITC, and if the Final Determination concludes that Netlist's patents were not violated or that remedies will not be imposed, then Netlist's prospects and financial condition may be materially adversely affected.  These and other risks and uncertainties are described in Netlist's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed on May 16, 2017, and subsequent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission it makes from time to time. Given these risks, uncertainties and other important factors, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent Netlist's estimates and assumptions only as of the date made, and except as required by law, Netlist undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements for any reason.

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SOURCE Netlist, Inc.