Seoul Semiconductor Wins LED Bulb Litigation and Pursuit of Further Enforcement Actions against LED Lighting Retailers

Seoul Semiconductor (KOSDAQ:046890) (collectively with Seoul Viosys Co., Ltd., “Seoul”), a leading global innovator of LED products and technology, announced that the U.S. Federal District Court for Nevada issued a judgment in favor of Seoul against Philcor T.V. & Electronic Leasing, Inc. dba energyavenue.com (“Philcor”), a company that sells LED lighting products.

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Previously, Seoul filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Nevada District Court against Philcor asserting infringement of 8 LED patents.

In the lawsuit, Philcor acknowledged that LED products used in the accused products were manufactured by several third party suppliers and, although previously unknown to Philcor, Philcor did not dispute that those products infringed Seoul Semiconductor’s patents. Philcor also did not dispute the validity of Seoul Semiconductor’s patents and agreed to pay past damages, as well as a license fee, in order to affirm its commitment to respecting the intellectual property of patents in technologies for high-voltage operation (Acrich Driver), Acrich MJT (multi-junction technology; over-6V high power chip), filament LED bulb structure, LED packaging, LED epitaxial growth, and LED chip fabrication.

Other Enforcement Actions against LED Lighting Retailers
Seoul continues a series of enforcement actions to prevent distribution of suspected infringing products in the LED lighting market.

On March 2, Seoul filed a patent litigation for infringement of 10 LED patents in the Texas Northern District federal court against Service Lighting Electrical Supplies, Inc. – the operator of America’s largest online retail channel for LED bulbs: 1000bulbs.com.

On May 8, Seoul initiated a patent infringement lawsuit for infringement of 8 LED patents in the California Central District federal court against Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., an American chain of big-box retail stores having 1,550 stores. In the complaint, the accused products include various LED bulbs supplied by Feit Electric.

At the end of August, Seoul also filed a patent infringement lawsuit for infringement of 15 LED patents in the Texas Eastern District federal court against Fry’s Electronics, a retail company of consumer electronics – accusing UCD technology (KSF) that enables significant improvement of color gamut of LCD displays such as TVs and smartphones as well as optical lens technology of infringement.

In furtherance of its enforcement campaign, Seoul has also delivered notices to manufacturers of various LED lighting products, as well as their distributors, where it suspects infringement of its patents. Seoul has warned these companies that they need to stop using LEDs and any other components that may infringe upon Seoul’s patented technology.

Nam Ki-bum, Executive Vice President of the Lighting Department at Seoul, said, “In order to create fair competition in the market and make sure that intellectual property rights are respected, manufacturers as well as distributors should take active precautionary measures not to manufacture or sell infringing products” He added, “We will do our best to encourage a fair-competition environment, in which young entrepreneurs and small entities can succeed in the business world, relying on fair competition in the market and respecting hard-earned patented technology. This is one of the most valuable things Seoul Semiconductor is pursuing.”

About Seoul Semiconductor
Seoul Semiconductor develops and commercializes LEDs for automotive, general illumination, specialty lighting, and backlighting markets. As the fourth-largest LED manufacturer globally, Seoul Semiconductor holds more than 12,000 patents, offers a wide range of technologies, and products such as SunLike – delivering the world’s best light quality in a next-generation LED enabling human-centric lighting optimized for circadian rhythms; WICOP – a simpler structured package-free LED which provides market leading color uniformity and cost savings at the fixture level, providing high lumen density and design flexibility; NanoDriver Series – the world’s smallest 24W DC LED drivers; Acrich, the world's first high-voltage AC-driven LED technology developed in 2005, including all AC LED-related technologies from chip to module and circuit fabrication, as well as multi-junction technology (MJT); and nPola, a new LED product based on GaN-substrate technology that achieves more than ten times the output of conventional LEDs. UCD constitutes a high color gamut display which delivers more than 90% NTSC.

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Contact information

Seoul Semiconductor Inc.
Jeonghee Kim, +82-70-4391-8311
jeonghee.kim@seoulsemicon.com