LG Display sues Samsung over OLED display patents

Even as Samsung is doing all things possible to be in the news for all the good reasons, there seems to be some trouble brewing. LG Display Co. has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics in a South Korean civil court. The lawsuit, as elaborated upon by a Wall Street Journal report, pertains to the use of advanced OLED displays in smartphones and tablet PCs. LG Display, in its lawsuit against its biggest rival, has alleged that seven of its patents pertaining to the design of OLED panels, driver circuitry, and device design have been infringed upon. 

The company would seek damages, and a permanent injunction banning the sale of those Samsung products in South Korea, which it believes infringes upon its patents, including Samsung's popular smartphone, the Galaxy S III, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet, and the Galaxy Note phablet. Quoting LG Display Co. on the matter, the report adds, “This lawsuit has been filed both to enforce LG Display's intellectual property rights and promote fair competition”.

LG Display files lawsuit against Samsung

Samsung Electronics, on its part has stated that it is in possession of more OLED-related patents than LG, and that it will look into the lawsuit and take into account legal action "if it is needed".

It was only recently that an end of sorts came to a long-standing patent battle between technology giants, Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc. Apple won the patent infringement lawsuit, and Samsung Electronics is to cough up compensation to the tune of a staggering $1.05 billion.

The court ruled that Samsung infringed on Apple's technologies, which it used to create its iPhone and iPad. However, Samsung has appealed on the decision. In what would also come as a blow to Samsung's ambitions in the US, Apple has also demanded in its appeal that Samsung withdraw its most popular smartphones and tablets from the US market.

Apple and Samsung were friends once, and share a complex relationship. Samsung is a key components supplier to Apple. A British judge, in his ruling, affirmed that Samsung's Galaxy tablets did not infringe Apple's designs for the iPad, because they were "not as cool". It was Judge Colin Birss, who noted in his High Court judgment that the Galaxy tablets were part of the ''same family as the Apple design'' when seen from the front. However, Samsung products, he noted, were "very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back".

Today, at a glitzy event in the Indian city of Hyderabad, Samsung launched the successor of its popular Galaxy Note phablet, the Note II. The much-hyped phablet will be available in the country for Rs 39,900. 

A sales ban on popular Samsung products would deal a huge blow to the prospects of the company on its home ground. It now remains to be seen in which direction this lawsuit heads.