Pointing the lifeblood of AI storage! Netlist (NLST.US) upgrades in the face of Samsung's patent battle, HBM and DDR5 may face US import ban.

American memory technology company Netlist (NLST.US) announced on Wednesday that it has filed a new patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics (SSNLF.US) in the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) and the Eastern District of Texas Federal Court. This lawsuit involves two US patents owned by Netlist - US Patent No. 12,646,537 and US Patent No. 12,650,937, corresponding to Samsung's High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) products and DDR5 RDIMM and MRDIMM memory modules. It is worth noting that in the complaint filed with the ITC, Netlist has also listed Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US), Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI.US), NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US), and Broadcom Inc. (AVGO.US) as additional defendants. This means that this patent battle has expanded from a direct confrontation between Netlist and Samsung to the entire AI hardware supply chain. Netlist is adopting a "dual-track" strategy this time - filing lawsuits simultaneously with the ITC and the federal court. At the ITC level, Netlist is seeking exclusion orders and cease and desist orders to prevent allegedly infringing products from being imported into the United States. The ITC investigation process is known for its rapid progress and can typically enter the trial phase within a year. The lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas Federal Court may seek monetary damages. This is not the first time that Netlist has initiated ITC action. As early as September 30, 2025, Netlist had filed a 337 investigation application with the ITC, alleging that Samsung and other companies had infringed on six of its patents. The ITC voted on December 30, 2025 to investigate Samsung and its customers Alphabet Inc. Class C and Super Micro Computer, Inc. Netlist CEO C.K. Hong stated in a declaration: "Netlist continues to drive breakthrough innovation in the AI memory field. This litigation aims to further strengthen the protection of next-generation server DIMM and HBM technology and guard against unauthorized use." Netlist is an advanced memory and storage solutions innovation company headquartered in Irvine, California. According to third-party patent data platform GreyB, as of mid-2025, the company owns approximately 210 granted patents and pending applications. Its patented technology is considered an important component of AI computing infrastructure. Litigation background: accumulated over $420 million in compensation The patent dispute between Netlist and Samsung has been going on for a long time. The dispute between the two parties dates back to the end of 2021. In previous lawsuits, Netlist has achieved significant results: in April 2023, a jury ruled that Samsung intentionally infringed Netlist's patents and awarded $303 million in damages; in November 2024, another jury again ruled in favor of Netlist, awarding $118 million in damages. In total, Netlist has obtained over $421 million in jury award compensation from Samsung. In addition, in May 2024, Netlist also won a patent lawsuit against Micron (MU.US) and was awarded $445 million. The impact of this lawsuit is far greater than before. HBM is a key supporting memory for AI training chips (such as NVIDIA Corporation's GPUs), and DDR5 is the standard configuration for next-generation server memory. If the ITC ultimately issues exclusion orders, Samsung's HBM and DDR5 products may be prohibited from entering the US market, which will directly affect downstream manufacturers using these products. Netlist is represented in this case by the law firms Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox and Irell & Manella. Irell & Manella had previously represented Netlist in successful patent litigation against Samsung and Micron.