서울반도체, 美 K마트에 특허침해 소송 제기

Seoul Semiconductor (CEO Lee Jung-hoon) announced on the 11th that it had filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the U.S. Federal Court in California against U.S. retailer Kmart, which infringed light-emitting diode (LED) related patents of its subsidiary Seoul Viosys.
Kmart is a large global retail company with annual sales of 30 trillion won and over 1,000 stores.
Seoul Semiconductor stated that the LED products sold at Kmart infringed eight core LED manufacturing-related patents for which Seoul Semiconductor holds original technology, including patents relating to its high color rendering implementation and phosphor combination, multi-chip mounting, LED epitaxial layer growth and chip manufacturing, omnidirectional LED bulbs, and Acrich MJT technology.

LED-related patents of Professor Shuji Nakamura, a Nobel Prize laureate in Physics, and LED-related patents developed by distinguished chair professor Steven DenBaars were also included in this lawsuit.
For this lawsuit, Seoul Semiconductor appointed Lawrence Gotts of the law firm Latham & Watkins as lead counsel. Lawrence Gotts has been selected on multiple occasions as a top patent litigation expert by professional litigation evaluation agencies.
In the recently concluded patent lawsuit against Japanese lens company Enplas, he also led the lawsuit to victory by obtaining a ruling that Enplas had willfully infringed Seoul Semiconductor's patents.
This year, Seoul Semiconductor obtained a ruling against Japanese lens manufacturer Enplas for willful patent infringement and damages of 4 million dollars (4.42 billion won).
Its subsidiary Seoul Viosys also prevailed this year in a lawsuit filed against a U.S. ultraviolet (UV) curing equipment company, with a ruling of patent infringement.
Last month, it also filed a patent lawsuit against a U.S. UV insect-trap manufacturer that infringed its Violeds technology, which can catch mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus.
Insect traps applying Violeds technology are supplied to Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, which have recently suffered serious damage from the Zika virus.
Nam Ki-beom, head of Seoul Semiconductor's Central Research Institute, emphasized, "We will actively file lawsuits against infringing companies regarding the many patent-infringing products currently being manufactured and sold," and added, "Once we begin a lawsuit, we will realize justice to the very end."