Patent Infringement Suits Filed against Korean Firms
Samsung Electronics has become a major target of non practicing entities (NPEs) amid a rush of indiscriminate patent lawsuits filed against Korean companies.
A series of lawsuits were filed against Samsung Group firms in the United States over the past one month. Among them, three cases have been disclosed, including two involving Samsung Electronics and one Samsung Display.
The latest suit was initiated by Solas OLED based in Dublin, Ireland. Solas OLED filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Display with the Western District Court in Texas on Feb. 26 (local time). Solas OLED took issue with OLED display modules that Samsung Display supplied to Apple.
Solas OLED had also filed a lawsuit against Samsung Display’s and Samsung Electronics' U.S. subsidiaries in May 2019 with the Eastern District Court of Texas and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). The trials are underway now. Solas OLED dropped the ITC lawsuit in November 2020, but filed a suit again in December 2020 after collecting more information.
On Feb. 23, Sonrai Memory, which belongs to Atlantic IP Services as Solaris OLED, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electronics America with the Western District Court of Texas. Sonrai Memory claimed in the lawsuit that its two patents on multiprocessor chips with multiple operating systems have been violated. Specifically, Sonrai Memory claimed that its patent was illegally used in Qualcomm's Snapdragon SoC chip drive technology, which is used for Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S20 smartphone, and Samsung Electronics’ NAND flash technology, which is applied to the Galaxy S10 series smartphones.
Earlier, Evolved Wireless, an Austin, Texas-based company, filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics with the ITC and the Eastern District Court of Texas on Feb. 1. Evolved Wireless reportedly claimed that Samsung Electronics infringed upon its patent in more than 100 products including smartphones such as the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Galaxy S21 series and even tablet PCs and smart watches. The company asserted that Samsung violated Article 337 of the U.S. Customs Act by importing LTE-compliant cellular equipment to the U.S.