LG Electronics to compensate former researcher for LTE technology development

By Lee Kyung-min

A court has ordered LG Electronics to compensate a former employee with 166 million won ($144,000) for his contribution to the development of patented wireless data transmission technology a decade ago.

The employee, surnamed Lee, belonged to a research team that invented the long term evolution (LTE) technology in 2005. LTE is currently used as the international standard for data transmission.

In 2009, the company sold the technology to Pantech for 6.6 billion won ($5.9 million).

Lee left LG Electronics the following year.

Lee later filed a suit asking for 600 million won ($541,000) in compensation for his contribution.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled Sunday that LG Electronics must pay Lee because he played a crucial role in inventing the technology. However, the court said Lee was demanding too much, saying the technology was the result of “team research.”

“Lee invented the technology with the help of other research fellows, the accumulated research results, and the research center infrastructure,” the judge said during the ruling.

“Unlike Lee’s claim, the overall process to finalize the patent: the analysis, the report writing, and all the rest of the administrative process was done not only by Lee, but by the company.”

“I also took into account that LG Electronics made a huge profit because the LTE technology was selected as the international standard, which Lee contributed to,” the judge added.