LG wins lawsuit over patent troll
By Kim Yoo-chul
LG Electronics CEO Koo Bon-joon
LG Electronics, one of the world’s largest high-tech companies, scored a victory in a patent dispute worth billions of dollars against Wi-Lan, a Canada-based patent licensing firm.
LG said Sunday that a U.S. appeal court had ruled in favor of the Korean consumer electronics giant last week, which it expects will boost its business in the crucial North American market.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dismissed Wi-Lan’s suit against LG for infringing on its V-chip technology, which allows parents to block their children from TV content that they consider inappropriate.
Understandably, LG Electronics welcomed the decision.
``LG Electronics has so far been very aggressive to defend itself against patent infringement and to secure our patent values. The ruling from the U.S. court is no surprise as LG was highly confident it would win,’’ LG spokeswoman Na Joo-young said.
The case dates back to early 2011 when Wi-Lan filed a complaint against LG Electronics for infringement of its V-Chip patent in the United States.
After that, LG moved for summary judgment on numerous non-infringement and invalidity defenses as well as other affirmative defenses leading to an eventual victory in the court case.
Wi-Lan has some 3,000 patents in wireless-related fields. It is currently involved in various patent litigation cases with such well-known technology companies as Apple, HTC of Taiwan and Research In Motion (RIM).
Na declined to elaborate about further financial details of the latest victory. But LG officials and patent experts expect LG will gain more leverage in talks with Wi-Lan or other patent infringers for licensing fees.
``As far as we know, the court decision will affect both current and next licensing agreement talks with Wi-Lan or V-chip licensing program, though it’s been expected that Wi-Lan will take more legal action,’’ said a senior LG executive by telephone, while asking not to be identified
Wi-Lan officials weren’t available for comments.
The victory comes after a separate U.S. court ruled that LG did not infringe on patents held by Alcatel-Lucent. A jury in a federal court in San Diego ruled that the claim by Multimedia Patent Trust, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, which contended that LG illegally used its patents, was invalid and groundless.
Multimedia Patent Trust took issue with nine LG phones, which the former argued infringed on two of its patents like built-in video software and the use of a Qualcomm chip.
Alcatel-Lucent was also seeking $9.1 million in damages from Apple for royalties on its patents.