Seoul Semiconductor Confident that Latest Lawsuit by Nichia Lacks Merit
Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. ("Seoul"), a leading Korean light emitting diode (LED) manufacturer, announced that it plans to vigorously defend a lawsuit filed by Nichia Corporation ( "Nichia") in the Eastern District of Michigan claiming infringement of US patent 6,870,191. After review of Nichia's '191 patent, Seoul believes that Nichia's lawsuit lacks merit and that the patent's LED substrate is patterned with a protruded and recessed trapezoid, which is different from Seoul's products.
A federal judge in a California lawsuit who denied Nichia's motions for an injunction and attorney's fees against Seoul, noted that Nichia seemed to be using lawsuits "attempting to obtain some unstated ancillary advantage over [Seoul] in Asia." Seoul believes that Nichia's latest lawsuit is a similar misuse of the legal process.
Currently, Seoul and Nichia are engaged in twelve lawsuits throughout the world. Recently, Seoul was successful in invalidating in Korea one of Nichia's core LED patents for lack of novelty. In this latest Michigan lawsuit, Seoul will also seek to invalidate Nichia's '191 patent based on prior art.
Due to Seoul's continued excellence in innovation, Seoul has rights to more than 2,000 patents, including the Acriche technology, which is the only semiconductor lighting source powered by AC current, and deep ultraviolet LEDs. Seoul's technology has attracted cross licenses with other leading global LED manufacturers. Seoul values and respects the intellectual property rights of others, and expects the same in return.
