Violation of LED Patents
The world’s leading light-emitting diode maker Seoul Semiconductor said on September 11 that it and its affiliate Seoul Viosys have filed a lawsuit with the Federal Court in California against US-based Kmart, which is allegedly selling products that violate their LED-related patents.
Kmart is a global retail giant with nearly 30 trillion won (US$27.15) of yearly sales and some 1,000 stores.
Seoul Semiconductor said the products being sold in Kmart infringed eight of its patents, including high color rendering index, enhancement with phosphor combinations, multi-chip mounting technology, LED epitaxial growth, LED chip fabrication, omnidirectional LED lamp technology, and acrich multi junction technology (MJT).
The case filed against Kmart this time also includes the LED-related patents developed by Shuji NaKamura, the 2014 Nobel laureate, and his colleague chair-professor Steven DenBaars.
The accused infringing products includes an LED filament bulb that is gaining favorable responses from consumers in the US as a replacement for traditional incandescent bulbs, according to Seoul Semiconductor.
Its affiliate Seoul Viosys won the lawsuit against US-based UV LED curing device maker earlier this year, and sued against a US-based insect trap manufacturer last month, claiming that the company breaches its own developed and patented Violeds technology, which is proven to be effective up to 13 times more in killing mosquitoes carrying the zika virus. The mosquito traps to which the Violeds technology was applied are supplied to countries in South East Asia including Singapore greatly damaged by zika in recent months.
Seoul Semiconductor is actively working hand in hand with Seoul Viosys against the patent infringements.