News: LEDs
26 September 2024
EPO dismisses Everlight’s invalidation action against Seoul Semi’s ‘No Wire LED’ patent
South Korea-based Seoul Semiconductor Co Ltd and its affiliate Seoul Viosys have won a patent litigation case against Everlight, a Taiwanese LED company ranked sixth globally.
In August, the boards of appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) dismissed Everlight’s invalidation action against Seoul’s WICOP patent ‘No Wire LED technology’, affirming the WICOP (Wafer Integrated Chip on PCB) patent portfolios registered across 18 European countries.
Since the ruling of the UK Patents Court in 2018, Seoul says that it has won all patent lawsuits against Everlight and its distributor, spanning five countries over the past seven years. Seoul has won lawsuits related to WICOP technology applied in lighting, automotive and display applications, as well as those involving fundamental LED patents.
The No Wire LED technology is used not only in display products such as micro-LEDs but also in new technologies like adaptive driving beam (ADB) headlamps and STOP lamps that communicate with and help protect drivers and pedestrians in the automotive sector.
Seoul says that it has invested nearly $100m annually (10% of its sales) in R&D over the past 20 years to create new lighting. This investment has led to the development of technologies such as SunLike (which produces natural light that can alleviate the health effects of artificial indoor lighting) and No Wire Technology WICOP. Seoul Semi has 18,000 patents related to the LED industry.
“Immoral companies continue to sell infringing products by simply changing a product’s name even after patent infringement judgments, and some large corporations knowingly use infringing products to save a few cents,” says Seoul’s founder & CEO Chung Hoon Lee. “It drives young startup founders and innovative companies to despair.”
Seoul Semi gains permanent injunction in Europe against infringing LED products
