On December 21, 2017, BiTMICRO, LLC of Reston, Virginia (“BiTMICRO”) filed a complaint (part 1 and part 2) requesting that the ITC commence an investigation pursuant to Section 337.

The complaint alleges that the following entities (collectively, the “Proposed Respondents”) unlawfully import into the U.S., sell for importation, and/or sell within the U.S. after importation certain solid state storage drives, stacked electronic components, and products containing same that infringe one or more claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,826,243 (the ’243 patent), 6,529,416 (the ’416 patent), 9,135,190 (the ’190 patent), and 8,093,103 (the ’103 patent) (collectively, the “asserted patents”):

• Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. of South Korea
• Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. of San Jose, California
• Samsung Electronics America, Inc. of Ridgefield Park, New Jersey
• SK Hynix Inc. of South Korea
• SK Hynix America Inc. of San Jose, California
• Dell Inc. of Round Rock, Texas
• Dell Technologies Inc. of Round Rock, Texas
• Lenovo Group Ltd. of China
• Lenovo (United States) Inc. of Morrisville, North Carolina
• HP Inc. of Palo Alto, California
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. of Palo Alto, California
• ASUSTek Computer Inc. of Taiwan
• ASUS Computer International of Fremont, California
• Acer Inc. of Taiwan
• Acer America Corp. of San Jose, California
• VAIO Corp. of Japan
• Transcosmos America Inc. of Gardena, California

According to the complaint, the asserted patents generally relate to solid state storage technology. In particular, the ’243 patent relates to stacking and connecting together multiple modules, such as semiconductor dies, to create a stacked module, such as a multiple chip module (MCM). The ’416 patent relates to parallel erase operations in memory systems. The ’190 patent relates to a multi-profile memory controller for computing devices. Lastly, the ’103 patent relates to module stacking and packaging for electronic devices.

The complaint states that the Proposed Respondents import and sell products that infringe the asserted patents. The complaint specifically refers to various computers, mobile phones, tablets, watches, and components thereof, as infringing products.

Regarding domestic industry, BiTMICRO states that its licensee, BiTMICRO Networks, Inc. (“BNI”), designs, develops, assembles, tests, and supports products in the U.S. that practice the asserted patents. In particular, BiTMICRO states that BNI produces relevant solid state storage drives, stacked electronic components, and products containing same that BNI sells primarily to U.S. military contractors for use in mission critical applications.

With respect to potential remedy, BiTMICRO requests that the Commission issue a permanent limited exclusion order and permanent cease and desist orders directed at the Proposed Respondents and related entities.