SMART Announces That Patent Trial and Appeal Board Rejected 134 Claims Challenged in Netlist's '912 Patent and 35 Claims Challenged in Netlist's '627 Patent

NEWARK, CA--(Marketwired - June 06, 2016) - SMART Modular Technologies, Inc., a leader in specialty memory, storage and hybrid solutions including memory modules, Flash memory cards and other solid state storage products, today announced that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("PTAB") rejected 134 out of 136 claims of Netlist, Inc.'s U.S. Patent 7,619,912 (" '912"). Importantly, SMART did not seek reexamination of the two claims not rejected. In another decision, the PTAB rejected 35 out of 35 claims of Netlist U.S. Patent 7,864,627 (" '627"). The rejected claims relate to rank multiplication and load reduction utilized in memory modules (including LRDIMMs and NVDIMMS), solid state drives or SSDs, and storage class memory devices.

The PTAB ruled that SMART's U.S. Patent No. 8,250,295 was a basis for finding claims in Netlist's '912 and '627 to be unpatentable. Essentially, the PTAB affirmed that SMART's technology preempted Netlist's '912 and '627 patents."

About SMART Modular Technologies

SMART Modular Technologies is a global leader in specialty memory, storage and hybrid solutions serving the electronics industry for over 25 years. SMART Modular delivers solutions to a broad customer base, including OEMs that compete in the computing, networking, communications, storage, mobile and industrial markets. Focused on providing extensive customer-specific design capabilities, technical support and value-added testing services, SMART collaborates closely with their global OEM customers throughout their design process and across multiple projects to create memory, storage and hybrid solutions for demanding applications with differentiated requirements. Taking innovations from the design stage through manufacturing and supply, SMART Modular has developed a comprehensive product line comprised of DRAM, Flash and hybrid memory technologies across various form factors. SMART Modular is part of the SMART family of global companies. See www.smartm.com for more information.