… Court Throws Out Diablo Countersuit for ULLtraDIMM SSD …

Netlist, Inc. announced that Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted Netlist’s Special Motion to Strike Diablo’s claims against Netlist for breach of contract, unfair competition, and interference with Diablo Technologies, Inc.‘s customers.

The court also ruled that Netlist is entitled to reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs associated with Netlist’s filing of the Special Motion to Strike.

With all of its claims having now been stricken, Diablo has no affirmative claims to pursue in the trade secret lawsuit while Netlist’s claims for misappropriation and breach of contract remain intact as the March 9, 2014 trial date approaches.

Under the Court’s order issued January 12, Judge Gonzales Rogers found that Netlist’s actions, including filing the trade secret law suit and discussing the suit with customers, fell squarely within California statutes designed to protect constitutional free speech and statements related to litigation. One of these statutes allows for early dismissal of meritless claims aimed at chilling protected speech, so as to avoid costly, time-consuming litigation.

“We are pleased that the court acted quickly in striking Diablo’s frivolous claims“, said C.K. Hong, Netlist’s CEO. “We remained confident throughout that Diablo’s claims would not survive legal scrutiny.  Thankfully, neither we nor the court will be forced to waste any more resources on Diablo’s claims, and Diablo will cover the expenses we incurred to bring this to the court’s attention.”

This ruling came on the heels of judge Gonzalez Rogers taking the rare step of ordering a preliminary injunction against Diablo from manufacturing, using, distributing or selling high-speed memory chips used by SanDisk  Corp. and other major computer manufacturers.