US Jury Hits Kioxia Units With $229mn Verdict in Viasat Patent Case

Kioxia Holdings Corporation told the Tokyo Stock Exchange on July 17 that a federal jury in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas has ruled against two of its subsidiaries in a patent infringement case brought by Viasat, Inc. The jury, which delivered its verdict on July 16 US time, sided with Viasat and set provisional damages at roughly $229mn, or about ¥37.1bn at an exchange rate of ¥162 to the dollar.

The case dates back to November 29, 2021, when Viasat filed suit alleging that some Kioxia group products infringed a single patent claim. Viasat is a Carlsbad, California company led by chairman and chief executive Mark D. Dankberg. The named defendants are Kioxia Corporation, the Tokyo-based operating unit that develops, makes and sells memory and related products, and its US sales arm, Kioxia America, Inc., based in San Jose. Kioxia Corporation is run by representative director and president Hiroyuki Ota and has capital of ¥10bn.

Kioxia called the plaintiff's claims and the jury's finding "entirely unacceptable" and said it will pursue every available legal avenue, including post-trial motions and, if necessary, an appeal. The company said the verdict does not affect its ability to supply products and services to customers, and that it is still reviewing what the case means for its consolidated financial results, with further disclosure to follow as warranted.

The $229mn figure is explicitly labelled provisional in the company's own filing, a reminder that US jury awards in patent cases routinely change through post-trial proceedings before any number becomes final. For a company reporting under the ticker 285A on the Prime Market, the immediate story is a fresh contingent liability under review, not a confirmed hit to earnings.