LG Display sues Samsung over OLED patents
South Korean electronics firm LG Display has sued domestic rival Samsung, accusing it of breaching seven of its patents covering organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), technologies that power flat screen televisions.
The company, an affiliate of LG Electronics, filed the lawsuit in the Seoul Central District Court on September 27. It has demanded undisclosed damages and a permanent ban on five of Samsung’s products, including its smartphones and tablet computers.
At a press conference in Seoul, an LG official said “the company filed a damage suit to protect its indigenous technologies that took an enormous amount of money and people to develop over a long period of time."
Samsung said it would be reviewing the claims and would be filing a countersuit, if necessary.
The two companies are battling to launch large-screen OLED TVs, which are thinner and consume less power than more common LCD sets, by the end of the year.
The lawsuit follows separate legal wrangling in Korea between the two electronics producers. In July this year 11 people, including six former or current researchers at Samsung, were charged with allegedly leaking information about the company’s confidential technologies to LG Display. LG denied the charges and the case is pending.
In August, a jury in California slapped Samsung with a $1.05 billion fine for infringing five of Apple’s software and design patents.
