Seoul Semiconductor files technology patent infringement lawsuit against Conrad Electronic

Seoul Semiconductor, a global LED company, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Conrad Electronic, a large European electrical appliance distributor, for technology related to backlight sources for mobile phones.

The main content of the patent lawsuit filed with the German Düsseldorf Court is that the mobile phone products sold by the above-mentioned distribution company infringe Seoul Semiconductor's backlight LED light extraction core technology patent. This is an original LED chip manufacturing technology that can more effectively extract light from LED chips to increase light brightness.

This is the first time that Seoul Semiconductor has filed a patent lawsuit against mobile phone backlight technology. The company has begun to take tough measures against global mobile phone brands and manufacturers in the European market. Conrad Electronic currently sells hundreds of mobile phone brands from Korea, the United States, China and other places.

Seoul Semiconductor has hundreds of patents related to LED backlights for TVs and mobile phones. In the past five years of litigation, 68 patents have been claimed to be infringed. The related technologies are high color rendering technology, high grayscale and high uniformity technology, luminous efficiency improvement technology, battery power reduction technology, etc.

In addition, the company has sent several lawyer letters to global mobile phone brands and manufacturers, asking them to stop infringing Seoul Semiconductor's LED backlight patent technology. At the same time, it is investigating the circulation of mobile phone products that infringe the above patent technology and will take strong legal measures to find out the results.

Yoo Seung Min, vice president of Seoul Semiconductor's business headquarters, said: "Seoul Semiconductor spends 10% of its sales (120 billion won in 2018, about 703 million yuan) on technology research and development every year. Only when a culture where intellectual property rights are respected and a culture of ethical and fair business competition become mainstream can small and medium-sized enterprises grow into global companies and young entrepreneurship will become more active."

Seoul Semiconductor is currently involved in five patent infringement lawsuits, including one involving Philips' TV LED backlight technology patent infringement lawsuit, and has won three of them.

In addition to backlights for mobile phones, Seoul Semiconductor also has Power LED light extraction technology for flashes. In 2018, the Düsseldorf Court in Germany ruled that companies that illegally used Seoul Semiconductor's technology must be prohibited from selling products and that products sold in the previous six years must be recalled and scrapped.

Seoul Semiconductor said: "The original technology of using two colors to improve the color quality of the flash belongs to Seoul Semiconductor's subsidiary SETi (Sensor Electronic Technology, Inc.) in the United States. Currently, all high-end brands have infringed on this technology patent. If it is a fair business activity, it is almost impossible to avoid our patents and manufacture LEDs for mobile phones."

Backlight unit structure