By Kim Yoo-chul
LG Electronics and its affiliate LG Innotek have filed a request to bar the sale of German-based Siemens affiliate Osram products, while suing the German light bulb maker for patent infringement.
LG plans to ask U.S. and Chinese authorities to investigate Osram’s light-emitting diode (LED)-related patents.
A complaint was already filed with the Korean trade commission to ban imports of LED products.
``LG Electronics and LG Innotek decided to bring Osram to the top local court because the companies believed that Osram’s patent-infringed LED products were hurting the local LED industry,’’ said LG Electronics spokeswoman Lee Ji-eun.
But she declined to give comments on the amount of compensation.
LG Electronics is the world’s second-biggest TV maker, while LG Innotek produces LED chips.
``We are planning to take the matter to China and the United States in order to protect our patents,’’ said Lee.
In the suit filed at the Seoul Central District Court, LG claimed that Osram infringed seven LG patents over packaging and LED chip technologies.
Osram representatives in Korea weren’t available for comment.
LG’s action comes after Samsung LED had made a similar legal action to seek damages from Osram’s alleged patent violations.
Osram took Samsung and LG to a U.S. court ahead of its initial public offering (IPO) scheduled for later this year.
Osram is the second largest lighting firm after Dutch-based Philips. Third is U.S.-based General Electric.
LEDs are electronic semiconductor devices that emit light and enhance high energy efficiency, while organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) are based on organic compounds.
Osram insisted that the Korean tech majors had infringed its patents on white and surface mountable LEDs.
Osram and Philips are gunning for the Korean LED light bulb market with the steady release of their advanced products at affordable prices. Osram has opened a showroom to display its OLED, LED products for its business-to-business (B2B) clients.
``A countersuit could be the right measure for Samsung and LG to prevent them from losing their grip by well-known foreign rivals,’’ said a senior Samsung executive on condition of anonymity citing sensitivity of the issue.
Korean tech giants were becoming targets of their bigger overseas peers over patents in major markets as patents are a key source of sustainable growths in the world of ``software.’’
The recent struggle is the latest battle in an ongoing so-called ``component war’’ as exclusive economic rights to certain technologies are becoming increasingly valuable to producers, according to LG executives.
LG Electronics CEO Koo Bon-joon has asked its legal team to increase the number of patent experts by more than 30 percent from the current 200 within the next two years.
``We are eyeing to hire more lawyers, technology experts and those who have expertise in patent development, licensing, strategic planning and trademarks for design,’’ said Lee from LG Electronics.
LG is paying ``millions of dollars’’ to the U.S.-based chip giant Qualcomm in return for using Qualcomm’s patented mobile-related technologies for LG’s smartphones.
LG has been gaining some shares in smartphones by heavily betting on the Google-powered mobile operating systems.
LG’s mobile chief Park Jong-seok said it is targeting to sell 24 million units of smartphones throughout this year.