Micron will hand Netlist a total of $600M over five years to end a long-running memory patent dispute. The settlement, announced October 6, pays $30M each quarter and grants Micron a five-year license to Netlist’s worldwide portfolio.
Paying more than the verdict
The figure tops the $445M jury award at the center of the case. A Texas jury found in May 2024 that Micron’s memory modules infringed two Netlist patents, but the Patent Trial and Appeal Board later ruled the asserted claims unpatentable and Micron filed notice of appeal in July 2025. Micron never paid, so Netlist had no cash to collect until now.
The agreement releases all pending proceedings and voids the verdict. It also covers patents an appeal could never have reached.
The trade case behind the urgency
Netlist had asked the US International Trade Commission in late September to block imports of Micron chips used in AI systems. An import ban halts product shipments, while damages only cost money. Settling removes that exposure.
Netlist struck a comparable deal with Samsung in August, drawing $239M upfront plus quarterly fees of up to $32.9M. Chief executive C.K. Hong said the Micron agreement “further validates the value of our AI memory technologies.”
For Micron, each quarterly payment is a rounding error against a quarter with $54.23B in revenue. For Netlist, the $120M a year arrives on top of roughly $333M in trailing revenue.
