Computer memory products maker Netlist Inc. has filed a patent lawsuit against a competitor that earlier this year tried to halt sales of the Irvine-based company’s flagship product through its own patent infringement claims.
Netlist’s complaint, filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Santa Ana, alleges that Smart Modular Technologies Inc. in the Bay Area and other competitors infringed on five patents related to memory components embedded in a newly released product.
Netlist and Smart Modular have been entangled in court battles throughout the year. In June, the U.S. District Court ruled against a preliminary injunction motion Smart Modular filed seeking to halt sales of Netlist’s HyperCloud products over patent infringement claims.
The products are designed to handle large memory capacity.
The June decision followed a December U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruling that rejected Smart Modular’s claims that Netlist infringed on its patents.
Netlist’s complaint alleges antitrust violations by Smart Modular and its parent, Smart Worldwide Holdings Inc., contending the companies withheld patent applications from regulators for more than eight years, then tried to “improperly” enforce the patent, and that they made “deceptive statements” regarding Smart Modular’s lawsuit against Netlist.
The latest lawsuit also alleges trade secret misappropriation against Canada-based Diablo Technologies Inc., which partnered with Smart Storage System to develop the ULLtraDIMM product and other competing offerings.
In other Netlist news, the company received a notice from the Nasdaq Stock market that it no longer complies with the exchange’s $10 million minimum stockholders’ equity requirement. The company has until Sept. 30 to regain compliance or it could be subject to delisting.
The various lawsuits involving its memory products have curtailed adoption and kept investors at a distance.
CleanTech OC
More than 400 executives, investors and industry experts are expected to attend next week’s CleanTech OC 2013 Conference at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
The conference will feature keynote speakers Andrew Littlefair, chief executive of Newport Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp.; former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson; and discussions on the latest trends in the sector, the natural-gas boom, and other topics.
“The clean-tech industry is in the midst of a resurgence clearly apparent in the rapid deployment and procurement from both public and private sectors of new clean technologies throughout the industry, in particular with regard to impacts from natural gas and energy efficiency,” said Scott Kitcher, CleanTech OC’s executive director.
The sector has faced mounting challenges and scant investment dollars in the wake of several well-publicized failures, including Anaheim-based hybrid luxury automaker Fisker Automotive Inc., which could be sold for as little as $25 million, and bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC in Fremont.
Kofax Lands Government Contracts
Irvine-based business software maker Kofax PLC has landed two contracts totaling more than $13 million, including its largest deal to date. The company, which is publicly traded in London but maintains its headquarters here, said a U.S. government agency will pay $11.7 million for software licenses and four years of maintenance services related to two products that will capture, extract and export data from benefit enrollment applications into its records system in an effort to reduce labor costs and improve service.
Kofax also recently announced a $2.3 million contract from an undisclosed bank in Europe that will use its software to process forms, documents and checks.
Kofax, in accordance with company policy, typically declines to name customers.
