Samsung takes OLED technology theft fight against LG to next round

The battle surrounding OLED technology theft between tech giants Samsung Display and LG Display is entering another round as Samsung recently filed an injunction against its rival in Seoul.

According to legal circles, Samsung filed an injunction against LG at the Seoul Central District Court, claiming that its competitor needed to take responsibility for attempting to steal its core organic light-emitting diode display technology.

The battle takes place as both companies are currently working on developing their own OLED displays for the next-generation televisions, which were introduced for the first time at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Samsung uses RGB-OLED technology for its display panels, while LG uses white-OLED technology.

Samsung said it had submitted to the court documents for about 18 confidential technologies for its OLED screens and 21 other relevant files. Samsung demanded 1 billion won from LG in compensation for each case of its usage of the cited technologies or sharing the information with a third party, according to news reports.

LG was in violation of infringing 18 different OLED technologies and 21 written statements involving those technologies, requesting that LG Display pay it 1 billion won for each piece of technology it has used or unveiled to a third party.

“LG Display forced Samsung’s senior researcher to take a job at its company, offering him an executive position as well as five others in the team. The firm then was able to get the information on Samsung’s OLED technologies along with the business secrets continuously through the act,” said officials at Samsung Display.

LG, however, denied such accusations, stating that Samsung was only trying bring down the image of its comany without any legal evidence.

“The W-OLED technology adopted by LG Display is a totally different method from the one used by our rival, which means we have no reason to plan such technology theft when we’re not in need of Samsung’s technology,” the company said in a statement.

“We also believe the move was staged to divide the attention it has gained from the recent disappearance of its OLED TVs in Germany.”

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