ANSAN, South Korea–Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (“Seoul”) (KOSDAQ 046890), a global manufacturer of LED products and technology, announced that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas against Ace Hardware, a global retail company, for selling filament LED bulbs and other LED products manufactured by Feit Electric. Seoul claims that the infringement is willful and that Ace Hardware has continued to sell Feit Electric’s products despite repeated notices.
In its complaint, Seoul asserts infringement of 16 LED patents covering the manufacturing of LED epitaxy, chips, packages, modules, lenses, and drivers. Those second-generation LED technologies include technologies for high color rendering, LED driver for high-voltage operation, LED multi-junction, light diffusion lens, light extraction, and LED reliability. Such technology is the result of more than USD 1 billion of R&D investment.
“While global companies emphasize corporate responsibility, such as ESG, many companies still manufacture and sell products that may infringe intellectual properties in order to gain short-term profits,” said Myeong-Ki Hong, CEO of Seoul. “We are concerned that young innovators and small businesses are the ones who are harmed,” he added.
Seoul has already successfully obtained permanent injunctions for filament LED product sales several times in Europe and the U.S. In September 2020, the German District Court of Düsseldorf issued permanent injunctions, an order of recall and destruction against filament LED bulbs manufactured by a Phillips brand affiliate. In the U.S., the Texas Northern District Court also issued a permanent injunction against certain LED bulbs distributed by America’s largest online bulb retailer in September 2019. Seoul also secured permanent injunctions against retailers selling certain Feit Electric products in the Eastern District of Texas and Central District of California.
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