IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 10 – Netlist, Inc., a leading provider of high performance memory solutions for the cloud computing market, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has ordered reexamination and rejected all of the claims of United States Patent No. 8,250,295 ('295 patent) which have been asserted in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Smart Modular Technologies, Inc. ("SMART") against Netlist. Netlist requested reexamination of the claims on September 15, 2012 by presenting the USPTO with six different combinations of prior art that had not been considered in the original examination of the '295 patent. After reviewing Netlist's reexamination request, the USPTO concluded that there is a reasonable likelihood that these claims will be found invalid based on each of the six combinations and thus ordered reexamination. The USPTO then followed the order granting reexamination with an Office Action where it formally rejected the claims based on the same six prior art combinations.

"We are very pleased with the timely decision by the USPTO to reject all requested claims of the '295 patent in light of six different combinations of prior art," said Netlist President and CEO C.K. Hong. "The USPTO's recent decision to reject SMART's claims underscores the materiality of the prior art that had not yet been considered. In addition, the new patent law sets a higher threshold for ordering reexamination than in the past by requiring a reasonable likelihood of prevailing. For that reason, we feel strongly that the USPTO will ultimately cancel the claims of the '295 patent, thereby eliminating the sole basis for SMART's patent infringement lawsuit."

About Netlist

Netlist, Inc. designs and manufactures high-performance, logic-based memory subsystems for server and storage applications for cloud computing. Netlist's flagship products include HyperCloud, a patented memory technology that breaks traditional memory barriers, NVvault family of products that enables data retention during power interruption, EXPRESSvault, a PCI Express backup/recovery solution for cache data protection and a broad portfolio of industrial Flash and specialty memory subsystems including VLP (very low profile) DIMMs and Planar-X RDIMMs.

Netlist develops technology solutions for customer applications in which high-speed, high-capacity, small form factor and heat dissipation are key requirements for system memory. These customers include OEMs that design and build tower, rack-mounted, and blade servers, high-performance computing clusters, engineering workstations and telecommunications equipment. Founded in 2000, Netlist is headquartered in Irvine, CA with manufacturing facilities in Suzhou, People's Republic of China and an engineering design center in Silicon Valley, CA.

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Source: Netlist