South Korean semiconductor firm SK hynix has been granted a worldwide, non-exclusive patent license from Longitude Licensing Ltd. for the patent portfolio of Longitude Flash Memory Solutions, Ltd., which comprises more than 500 patents related to the design, manufacturing and operation of various kinds of memory devices.
Both Longitude Licensing Ltd. (LLL) and Longitude Flash Memory Solutions, Ltd. (LFMS), are affiliated with IPValue Management, a company that manages the monetization of intellectual property portfolios for technology clients, and has forged licensing agreements with many semiconductor companies. IPValue claims to have generated nearly $3 billion in cash from patent licenses, and has delivered nearly $1.5 billion to its partners, along with other valuable considerations.
The financial terms of this agreement were not disclosed. The patents originated from Cypress Semiconductor, which was acquired by Infineon Technologies in 2020, and they “address certain fundamental technologies related to the design, manufacturing and operation of various kinds of memory devices, such as NAND (3D & 2D, MLC, TLC, QLC), DRAM, NVDIMM, HBM, and SSDs products and include, among others, SONOS, Charge Trap structures and ECC,” according to a statement.
“We are pleased to have licensed the LFMS patent portfolio to SK hynix on mutually agreeable terms. This agreement reinforces our belief that a constructive and open dialog with potential licensees can result in an amicable deal,” said Garrett Dempsey, Director of LLL. SK hynix follows other major semiconductor vendors, including Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd. and Micron Technology, Inc., as a licensee of the LFMS patent portfolio.
SK hynix is a supplier of Dynamic Random Access Memory chips, Flash memory chips, CMOS Image Sensors, and SSDs for a wide range of distinguished customers globally. The deal comes at a time when many segments of the device memory market, which provides memory for mobile phones, PCs and other products, are seeing energetic growth and investment, even as prices for some memory component technologies have plummeted in recent months amid oversupply, a problem the rest of the semiconductor ecosystem may wish it had right now.