Patent Suits Pester IT Giants
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
Korean IT giants, gripped by concerns about a slow global market, are struggling to shake off competitors' patent suits.
Samsung Electronics is considering filing a counter-suit against Eastman Kodak and Spansion after the two accused it of infringing on their patented technologies.
"A counter-legal action is being considered because we wish to preserve our brand integrity," a Samsung spokesman said.
Samsung faces another legal challenge from U.S. chipmaker Spansion, which competes with the Korean firm in the flash memory market, seeking damages to the tune of $30 billion.
Spansion accused Samsung of using its flash memory technologies, which enable electronic devices to store data, when its power is turned off.
Spansion filed its complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) and with the U.S. District Court in Delaware.
Separately, Kodak sued Samsung and LG Electronics, alleging infringement of digital-camera patents.
A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York and ITC concerns patents for image capture, compression and data storage. Kodak is also seeking injunctions prohibiting Samsung and LG from selling products with components made using their technologies.
"Our digital-camera technology is totally different from the one used by Kodak. Since Kodak has been adopting our technology, we are reviewing `many options' including a counter-suit against Kodak," an LG Electronics spokesman said.
Industry watchers say such legal troubles over patents have been increasingly common between technology companies.
"As Korean technology companies are leading the global electronic devices market, their smaller rivals fear they will be chased out of the market," a Samsung insider said, adding that warding off such legal challenges is very important.
Meanwhile, Samsung SDI and Japan's Pioneer are still in a court battle over the claim by the Japanese company that SDI infringed its patents in plasma display panel technology in manufacturing Samsung's TVs. LG Electronics recently won a long legal battle with Whirlpool.
Legal action is sometimes used as a prelude leading to an out-of-court settlement, according to industry experts.
"Well, I have seen many cases where the players directly concerned with patent woes eventually negotiated," said a high-ranking industry watcher, asking not to be identified.
Earlier this year, Samsung settled patent disputes with Renesas Technology, a joint venture of Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi and Panasonic.