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28 October 2016Patents

LG faces LED patent infringement claims

Lexington Luminance, a US-based company, has filed a complaint against Korean electronics company LG for allegedly infringing a patent covering light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

The case, which was filed in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts yesterday, October 27, involves US patent number 6,936,851, titled “Semiconductor light-emitting device and method for manufacturing the same”.

In 2005 the patent was issued but it was later re-examined.

The case arose following another dispute, in which Google had collaborated with LG to create the Nexus 4 phone and the Nexus 7 and 10 tablet computers. In May 2015, Lexington filed a complaint against Google alleging that the products had infringed the ‘851 patent.

Lexington also served “preliminary infringement contentions” to Google, explaining how the Nexus 4 infringed the re-examined ‘851 patent.

The company later voluntarily dropped its allegations against the Nexus 4, leaving the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablet computers in the case.

According to Lexington, Google supplied most of the software for the Nexus 4, while LG supplied most of the hardware.

In the dropped case, Lexington had accused the LEDs used in the backlighting of the Nexus 4 display of infringing claims of the ‘851 patent. The company therefore claims that LG has been aware of the alleged infringement since May 2015, when it filed the case against Google.

On October 18, LG filed a petition for inter partes review of the ‘851 patent.

Lexington has asked the court for a ruling that LG has infringed the ‘851 patent, and that it be awarded damages as well as royalties.

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