Seoul Semiconductor sues LED bulb seller
South Korean LED producer Seoul Semiconductor has sued a US company selling LED bulb products, accusing it of infringing 12 patents.
Yesterday, September 19, Seoul Semiconductor announced that it had filed the patent infringement lawsuit against Archipelago Lighting on Friday, September 15, in the US District Court for the Central District of California.
The patents relate to Seoul Semiconductor’s Acrich technology, which covers “fundamental” LED technologies such as those covering LED drivers for high-voltage operation, filament LED bulb structure, and LED packaging.
According to the press release, in conventional LED products, one LED unit usually operates at a low voltage and high current.
To increase brightness, a number of LED units must be connected through wire-bonding. But this can lead to problems inducing an “oversized, costly operating circuit, a substantial increase in manufacturing costs and defects caused by multiple wire-bonding connections”.
The Acrich technology resolves these problems by enabling the design of a high-voltage product with a high-power output that relies on only a small number of LED units.
Seoul Semiconductor began to develop the technology in the mid-1990s and has launched products every year following mass production in 2005. It now owns the rights to approximately 1,000 Acrich patents.
“In order to protect its hard-earned investment against such infringement, Seoul will actively enforce its patent rights against any infringers,” said the press release.
Archipelago has allegedly infringed the patents through the sale of the A19F6027-2 bulb, which includes a number of LED packages.
Ki-bum Nam, head of Seoul Semiconductor’s research and development centre and chief technology officer, said: “We have extensively investigated copycat products infringing on Acrich technology with various LED TVs, general lighting and automotive lighting products.”
Nam added that to protect the technology, Seoul Semiconductor will “continuously take any and all legal action against infringers that disregard our valuable IP”.
In June, Seoul Semiconductor settled a patent infringement dispute with US retailer Kmart.
The South Korean company had sued Kmart because the retailer had sold branded LED lighting bulbs in its stores that allegedly infringed eight of Seoul Semiconductor’s patents.
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