SMART Modular Technologies Announces Litigation Against Netlist's HyperCloud DIMMs

NEWARK, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 13, 2012) - SMART Modular Technologies, Inc. ("SMART" or "SMART Modular"), a leading independent manufacturer of memory modules and embedded flash products, today announced that it has commenced litigation for patent infringement against Netlist, Inc., particularly against its HyperCloud DIMM products.

SMART Modular has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Case No. 2:12-cv-02319-MCE-EFB, accusing Netlist's HyperCloud of infringing SMART's U.S. Patent No. 8,250,295. SMART has also asked the court for permission to file an immediate motion for preliminary injunction to prevent Netlist from selling HyperCloud products in order to stop the alleged continuing infringement by Netlist. The complaint filed is the most recent step in SMART's ongoing defense of its intellectual property related to "rank multiplication" for DRAM memory modules referred to as Load Reducing or LRDIMMs.

In its lawsuit, SMART alleges that Netlist has willfully infringed SMART's '295 patent as Netlist has had knowledge of SMART's prior patent application for the rank multiplication technology.

This action follows SMART Modular's requests that the United States Patent Office reexamine Netlist's patents on rank multiplication. Those reexaminations have been highly successful as the US Patent Office has found that SMART Modular's intellectual property invalidates almost all of the claims of Netlist's Patent Nos. 7,289,386; 7,619,912; and 7,864,627 relating to rank multiplication. Netlist had previously sued Google and other companies over Netlist's '386 patent. SMART Modular now seeks to end Netlist's business exploitation of SMART's intellectual property.

Iain MacKenzie, President and CEO of SMART Modular, commented, "We were very pleased that the USPTO adopted our arguments and rejected almost all of Netlist's '386; '912, and '627 patent claims. The filing of this litigation confirms our commitment to our strategy of developing and protecting leading edge technology that can be commercialized in enterprise applications." Mr. MacKenzie continued, "As opposed to the proprietary and litigious approach adopted by Netlist in its lawsuits against other industry participants, SMART has registered its rank multiplication patents with the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, or JEDEC, in order to help the industry create a JEDEC standard for participating companies to use."

About SMART Modular
SMART Modular is a technology leader in the design, development and deployment of current and next-generation memory products. Combining leading-edge design and manufacturing with proven world-class support, SMART Modular leverages its deep expertise in DRAM, SRAM and Flash architectures with world-class board-layout design. SMART Modular delivers high-quality, high-reliability solutions to a broad customer base, including tier one computing and telecom OEMs. In support of these designs, SMART Modular provides award-winning innovations in memory and embedded storage technologies. SMART Modular is part of the SMART family of global companies. See www.smartm.com for more information.

About SMART Worldwide Holdings
The SMART family of companies are leading designers, manufacturers and suppliers of electronic subsystems for the most demanding OEMs around the world. The SMART companies have led the way over the past 23 years providing standard and custom products to today's leading global OEMs crossing all major electronic industries. These industries include PC, enterprise and industrial servers, networking, telecom, defense, aerospace, gaming and embedded application markets. Taking innovations from the design stage through manufacturing and delivery, SMART Modular Technologies has developed a comprehensive memory product line that includes DRAM, SRAM and Flash memory in various form factors. SMART Storage Systems offers high-performance, high-capacity SSDs for enterprise storage, enterprise server, data center, defense, aerospace, industrial automation, medical and transportation markets. SMART's presence in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America enables it to provide its customers with proven expertise in international logistics, asset management and supply-chain management worldwide. See www.smartm.com for more information.