This litigation is the second one involving mobile phone products following the litigation against Conrad for infringement of backlight unit LEDs filed in July. According to the complaint, LEDs for flashlights of mobile phones sold by Conrad are infringing Seoul’s patent. The patented technology in this litigation is “the Roughened Light Extraction Surface” technology that efficiently extracts light emitted from the internal LED structure by treating LED chip surfaces, thereby significantly improving light intensity and brightness – a fundamental technology of LED chip fabrication.
This patent has already been the subject of an injunction from a German court in December 2018 against LED products from a global, top 10 LED manufacturer. The patented technology has now been registered in 12 major countries, including the United States, Europe and Asia, and has been widely used for automobile headlamps, UV and outdoor lighting, as well as cell phone flashlights.
Similar to the evolution of smart phones, LED technology has progressed from first generation products to second generation products based on continuous technological advances. This litigation aims to protect second generation LED technology.
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Comparison of each generation’s characteristics |
||||
|
Section |
Luminous |
Life time |
CRI |
Operating |
|
1st generation |
Below 70-80 lm/W |
Below 5,000-6,000 hr |
Below 70 |
Below 70-80 ℃ |
|
2nd generation |
Over 150 lm/W |
Over 10,000 hr |
Over 80-90 |
Below 150 ℃ |
Seoul has already warned manufacturers of global mobile phones to cease using LED products suspected of infringement. Seoul investigates mobile phones incorporating such products and will consider any legal enforcement necessary if such infringement continues unabated.
To protect its patent rights, Seoul has already filed three patent infringement lawsuits against distributors of suspected infringing products in Europe alone. Seoul plans to expand its enforcement further given the confirmation of its technology from the German courts, where Seoul has obtained permanent injunctions against infringement of Seoul’s patents. Such patented technologies are widely applicable to high-power and mid-power LEDs.
“We hope that Seoul's success story could be a good example for young entrepreneurs and small entities who want to follow their dreams,” said Chung Hoon Lee, founder of Seoul. “Seoul will continue enforcement actions against manufacturers, distributors and end-brand companies that do not respect intellectual property. We will also take all necessary actions against companies that lure our employees away in an attempt to gain unlawful access to Seoul’s trade secrets.”
About Seoul Semiconductor
Seoul Semiconductor develops and commercializes LEDs for automotive, general illumination, specialty lighting, and backlighting markets. As the second-largest LED manufacturer globally excluding the captive market, Seoul Semiconductor holds more than 14,000 patents, offers a wide range of technologies, and mass produces innovative LED products such as SunLike – delivering the world’s best light quality in a next-generation LED enabling human-centric lighting optimized for circadian rhythms; WICOP – a simpler structured package-free LED which provides market leading color uniformity and cost savings at the fixture level, providing high lumen density and design flexibility; NanoDriver Series – the world’s smallest 24W DC LED drivers; Acrich, the world's first high-voltage AC-driven LED technology developed in 2005, including all AC LED-related technologies from chip to module and circuit fabrication, and nPola, a new LED product based on GaN-substrate technology that achieves more than ten times the output of conventional LEDs. UCD constitutes a high color gamut display which delivers more than 90% NTSC. For more information, please visit www.seoulsemicon.com/en.
