The technology, including non-volatile chalcongenide phase-change memory (PCM) and an Ovonic switch, was developed by Energy Conversion Devices (ECD), a company founded by Stan Ovshinsky to commercialise his inventions.

In 1998-1999, ECD signed a deal with Micron CTO Tyler Lowrey and Ovonyx, a newly-formed company that was set up to commercialise this IP. The royalty deal required Ovonyx to pay 0.5 per cent of its revenues on a quarterly basis to ECD. Lowrey subsequently became Ovonyx CEO.

Ovonyx earned $58m revenues from sub-licensing the ECD technology from the beginning of 2000 until 2012, when it stopped paying royalties to ECD.

Ovonyx stockholders included ECD, Lowrey, Intel, and former Micron CEO and chairman Ward Parkinson. He was also a VP and Director of Ovonyx.

ECD went bankrupt under Chapter 11 in February 2012. Energy Conversion Devices Liquidation Trust (ECDL Trust) was set up in the ECD liquidation plan and ECD subsequently sold its Ovonyx stock to Micron in August 2012. Micron owned 100 per cent of Ovonyx after July 2015.

In July 2015 the patents held by Ovonyx were transferred to a separate company, Ovonyx Memory Technology LLC (OMC), three days after Intel and Micron publicly launched 3D XPoint memory.

ECDL Trust argues the royalty payments to ECD should have continued after 2012 and is suing Lowrey, Ovonyx, OMC, Intel and Micron for the missing payments, in a Michigan bankruptcy court.

You can see how Intel and Micron actually made everything to get patent for nothing by delaying product release right before the moment they got patents int heir hands.

Recent court decision mean that Micron can be forced to pay big money and Intel could be prohibited to further made such memory .