SK Hynix was cleared of the charge of patent infringement by winning a lawsuit against "Netlist," a semiconductor company established by a Korean, at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).
Netlist dropped an appeal against SK Hynix's Icheon headquarters and two U.S. subsidiaries to ITC on June 23 (local time), the News 1 reported on Aug. 16 quoting industry sources.
It is the first time in more than four years since the first lawsuit was filed in September 2016.
Earlier, the ITC made a final ruling on April 7 that SK Hynix did not violate Netlist's patent. The decision came about three and a half years after the Netlist, founded by Hong Chun-ki, who worked for a Korean semiconductor company and moved to the U.S., filed a lawsuit on October 31, 2017.
However, the dispute between SK Hynix and Netlist is not completely over. This is because patent lawsuits filed in general courts other than ITC have yet to be concluded.
Netlist filed a lawsuit with the Central District Court of California against SK Hynix in August 2016 and June 2017 for patent infringement.
Not only this, but this year, Netlist filed the same complaint with the Texas Western District Court on March 17 and June 15, respectively.
This concludes SK Hynix's two legal battles that have been dragged on by the ITC for four years.
In the semiconductor industry, it is analyzed that Netlist's excessive lawsuit is an intentional act aimed at signing royalties through patent negotiations. Netlist filed a patent infringement suit in July 2017 in China and Germany as well as in the U.S.
The lawsuit in China ended with SK Hynix's victory in May 2018 when the Chinese Patent Tribunal decided that the patent suit was invalid and a month later in June.
In Germany, the Munich District Court ruled in January 2019 that SK Hynix did not violate the patent and even the German Patent Office ruled in favor of SK Hynix in May 2019, saying that the patent in the lawsuit was invalid.
