South Korean LED maker Seoul Semiconductor Co Ltd says that it has prevailed in a series of patent invalidation actions against Japanese lens maker Enplas Corp and has also concluded royalty-bearing licenses regarding LED technology with North American television makers.
Canadian electronics firm Curtis International Ltd and Seoul Semiconductor have resolved a patent lawsuit filed by Seoul Semiconductor in US Federal District Court, asserting infringement of Seoul’s patents based upon Curtis’s sales of LED backlighting unit products. As part of the settlement, Curtis has agreed to respect Seoul’s intellectual property and pay for a royalty-bearing license for any covered products and to cease using unlicensed LED products. The seven asserted patents cover a wide range of technologies including (but not limited to) backlighting units, LED packaging, LED chips and epitaxial layers and black hole lenses.
In addition, Seoul Semiconductor has recently won a series of other victories in patent disputes regarding backlight technology for LED and lens products. In July, it obtained a final judgment in which US-based Craig Electronics acknowledged infringement of all of Seoul’s asserted patents and their validity. Craig also agreed to pay for a license and to stop using unlicensed, infringing LED products.
Seoul also filed inter partes review (IPR) petitions against three backlight lens patents owned by Japanese lens maker Enplas. All three IPR petitions were instituted by the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In September and October, the PTAB issued final written decisions invalidating all the instituted claims for all three patents, finding them to be unpatentable on anticipation and/or obviousness grounds. It is uncommon for the PTAB to invalidate all the instituted claims of three patents, says Seoul Semiconductor.
