LG Display takes Samsung to court over OLED patents

LG Display on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics, claiming that its rival infringed on its patents involving the organic light-emitting diode technology of its latest gadgets such as the Galaxy S3.

LG Display held an urgent press conference and said it filed the suit at the Seoul Central District Court which said Samsung infringed seven of its patented technologies.

The gadgets in dispute are Samsung’s Galaxy S2, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Tab 7.7.

“We decided to go ahead with the legal action because we believed that Samsung’s mobile devices in general violated LG Display’s core patents,” said Lee Bang-soo, chief of communications at the company.

The seven patented technologies include those on the OLED narrow bezel, OLED heating and OLED panel power outlet wiring structure.

“Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display must immediately put a stop to manufacturing products that have used our company’s patented technologies without notice, pay the user fees and offer an apology as well as a promise that it will not happen again,” Lee said.

In response to such accusation, Samsung Display said that the firm has more OLED technology patents in numbers ― a total of 6,900 patents registered in Korea and the U.S. compared to LG’s 1,400 in the same two countries ― and that it is even considering taking legal actions after closely examining the issues at stake.

“LG Display’s filing of the lawsuit is only seen as a choice made to get rid of the negative image it has gained from the OLED technology theft (issue) raised by us,” its officials said.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)