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30 May 2019Patents

University of New Mexico nonprofit takes Samsung to court

A research nonprofit organisation has accused South-Korea based Samsung Electronics and three of its subsidiaries of infringing its patent-protected semiconductor technology.

The complaint was filed on Tuesday, May 28, at the US District Court for the Western District of Texas by Supporting Technology Transfer and Catalyzing Economic Development ( STC), which is owned by the University of New Mexico.

The lawsuit concerns one of STC’s patents, US number 9,142,400, which covers “a method of making a heteroepitaxial layer on a seed area”.

Samsung Electronics America, Samsung Semiconductor and Samsung Austin Semiconductor are the four subsidiaries named in the suit.

STC alleged that Samsung manufactures semiconductor devices which infringe the ‘400 patent. These devices are then incorporated into third-party electronic products, such as computer chips, smartphones and computer graphics cards, according to the suit.

Samsung has “actively encouraged” its customers, such as Apple, to directly infringe the ‘400 patent by selling and importing devices which allegedly used the patented technology, said the claim.

In the filing, STC said Samsung has known that its acts constituted direct infringement of at least one claim of the ‘400 patent since September 2015 and that it had invited the electronics company to take a licence to the patent, but Samsung had declined.

According to STC, the process Samsung Austin Semiconductor uses to manufacture semiconductor devices includes steps “literally corresponding” to each step of claim 1 of the ‘400 patent.

STC is seeking a declaration of infringement, awards in damages and an injunction against Samsung.

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24 May 2019   The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit yesterday, May 23, handed victory to electronics company Samsung in a patent dispute.
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3 June 2019   A Texas-based company has filed a patent suit against Samsung Electronics, alleging infringement of two of its patents.