South Korean semiconductor firm fires UPC action at Amazon
Seoul-based company sues US tech and online marketplace giant in European court | Individual lawsuits “less efficient” says litigant | Seoul Semiconductor has obtained 15 permanent injunctions over patents in the past five years.
Seoul Semiconductor has sued Amazon for patent infringement in Europe’s Unified Patent Court (UPC), seeking an injunction against the sale of products it says uses its protected LED technology.
The company, one of the top four LED manufacturers in the world, announced the news yesterday (March 5), saying that it was filing at the UPC because it gave it the option to “prevent the distribution of infringing products throughout Europe with a single lawsuit”.
Amazon stands accused of infringing patents belonging to Seoul Semiconductor, including one relating to a technology that freely adjusts the brightness and colour of LED lighting products over time.
Another asserted patent relates to heat dissipation in LED packages, a technology that Seoul Semiconductor said was widely used in automotive lighting where heat dissipation was critical.
Seoul Semiconductor owns more than 18,000 patents and is familiar with defending them in the courts, having obtained 15 permanent injunctions for patent infringement against various manufacturers and distributors in the past five years in the US, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
However, filing lawsuits in individual countries was “a less efficient way to enforce patents against infringing products”, the company said in its statement, pointing to the fact that injunctions and damages orders from the UPC could take effect simultaneously in 17 European countries.
Commenting on the suit against Amazon, Han-seon Park, executive vice president of Seoul Semiconductor’s marketing department, said: “As in life, the opportunities in the market should be as fair as possible.
“Despite emphasis on ESG management, some large LED companies are merely distributing infringing products with little interest in respecting intellectual properties. It hurts us all, even those striving for a society built on fair competition.”
Previous injunctions
In April 2022, Seoul Semiconductor alleged its patents had been infringed through the sale of Philips TVs, filament LED bulbs and other lighting products in two lawsuits filed in the US and Europe.
The same year, it obtained a permanent injunction against European retailer Conrad Electronic in a patent infringement case that related to flash LEDs in mobile phones.
The Ansan-headquartered firm obtained a permanent injunction against various LED products from the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf, Germany, in May 2023.
This included products from Everlight Electronics, distributed globally through Mouser Electronics, and products from LED Engin, a US company bought by German firm Osram.
Amazon has not yet commented on the UPC lawsuit.
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