Samsung Display has filed a lawsuit in US Court in East Texas against Chinese rival BOE Technology for patent infringement accusations of displays used in mobile devices. Samsung Display is a unit of Samsung Electronics.
(Photo : JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images)
A woman walks past a new flagship store of Samsung Electronics at the Gangnam district in Seoul on June 28, 2023.
Filing Lawsuit Against Chinese Rival
Samsung has stepped up its fight against BOE Technology by filing a lawsuit in US Court in East Texas for accusing of infringing five patents, which includes an iPhone 12 OLED patent. According to a report from Reuters, the case was filed in the Texas Eastern District Court, commonly reserved for patent trolls.
The lawsuit was filed on June 26, targeting BOE Technology and BOE Optoelectronics Technology and accusing the company of breaching four of its patented OLED technologies, including the Diamond Pixel technology of Samsung Display.
As per the lawsuit, "Samsung Display has suffered and will continue to suffer, irreparable harm as a result of Defendants' infringement of the '599 Patent' for which there is no adequate remedy at law unless Defendants' infringement is enjoined by this Court." This refers to the 599 patent, improving the image quality of a certain device.
This highlights efforts from China as Samsung dominates in the OLED market. However, BOE takes over Samsung in the LCD market which made them the world's number 1 player in the year 2021. For seventeen years, Samsung has been at the top before this takeover. Both Samsung and Apple did not release a statement other than the lawsuit.
Samsung vs. BOE
This lawsuit follows the complaint filed by Samsung Display in December with the United State International Trade Commission. Samsung alleged another patent infringement for numerous companies selling OLED screens as replacement displays for mobile devices. The company believes that this triggered an investigation by the agency.
As per Channel News, BOE Technology, along with two subsidiaries fought back in May and filed six legal proceedings against Samsung and five of its Chinese entities involved in producing display panels and chip or semiconductors.
Samsung Display Executive Choi Kwon-Young stated earlier this year that the company is seeking ways to receive compensation for its intellectual property, in regard to a question from analysts about the rising competition in the market for mobile OLED screens.
He added, "In order to protect our differentiated technologies and increase their value, we are actively promoting our hard-to-mimic OLED technology to the market. At the same time, we are taking various in-depth measures to recognize the legitimacy of the intellectual property rights accumulated through the efforts of our employees."
Also Read: Samsung Says Note 7 Explosions Were Caused By External Heating, Not The Battery, In China
The feud between the two companies puts Samsung's relationship with Apple at risk. As of the moment, Samsung Display supplied 70% of materials and OLED panels for iPhone 14 series. Korean Times reported that Samsung won the contract because of certain problems experienced by Apple in BOE and LG as its other suppliers during that time.
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