⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

Netlist is trying to preserve two related patents covering computer-memory modules that use a buffer to connect a controller with separately selectable groups, or ranks, of memory chips. Samsung asked the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to review the patents, and Micron companies later joined the challenges. The Board held every challenged claim unpatentable as obvious after combining an earlier buffered-module design by Perego with the JEDEC industry standard for DDR2 memory. Obviousness asks whether a skilled engineer at the time would have had reason to make that combination, rather than reaching it only by using the patents as a hindsight roadmap. Netlist says converting Perego's Rambus-oriented system to a JEDEC module would discard its configurable-width buffer and its ability to translate between otherwise incompatible controllers and memory devices. The appellees answer that Perego was not limited to Rambus, JEDEC dominated the market, and the Board expressly weighed the tradeoffs. The Federal Circuit must decide whether the Board applied the law correctly and whether substantial evidence supports its findings.

Netlist, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (No. 25-1286) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, argued September 9, 2026.