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LG files lawsuit to ban sale of Audi, BMW in South Korea

By Tim Beissmann |

South Korean technology giant LG Electronics has applied to a local court attempting to ban the sale of Audi and BMW vehicles in the country over an ongoing patent row.

 

The two German manufacturers use LED products produced by Osram, a division of Siemens. LG and component affiliate LG Innotek have joined forces with Samsung LED in countersuing Osram in South Korea, after Siemens/Osram earlier filed suits against LG and Samsung in Germany, Japan and the US.

Osram claims the two companies infringed its patents on white LEDs and surface-mountable LEDs, while LG claims the products used in Audi and BMW products infringe up to seven patents relating to LED chips and packaging.

“We’ve decided to expand the legal case to automakers using LED package products made by Osram, as the infringement is increasingly affecting the fast-growing LED industry,” LG said in a statement.

LG filed a separate sales injunction request in July to ban the import of Osram’s LED products.

If the Seoul Central District Court allows the injunction to proceed, it will be a significant obstacle for both German luxury brands.

BMW is the most popular imported car brand in South Korea, accounting for one in four imported cars sold so far this year. South Korean sales totaled 16,579 vehicles for the first eight months of the year.

Audi is a smaller brand, although it still makes up 10 per cent of the import market, with 6668 South Korean sales so far this year. Combined, the two manufacturers have sold around 2000 more vehicles in South Korea this year than they have in Australia.

A date for the court hearing is yet to be set. Until then, it’s business as usual for Audi and BMW.


 
  • C1ockwork

    These patent infringement lawsuits are getting ridiculous. Time for a patent process overhaul and the dressing down of patent trolls in courts.

    While I’m here, how about a code of conduct rule for comments banning the infantile and ever constructive ‘PRIMO!’ comments? Death in a house fire would be suitable punishment for offenders….

    • Jacob

      There should be just 1 global patent office.

    • Adonis

      primo suggestion there

    • Robbo

      This article didn’t really interest me, but it made my day to read @C1ockwork’s suggestion of ‘house fire penalty’ for said primo commenters :-)

  • delux

    Samsung sure is involved in some pretty massive law suits at the moment. It seems counter productive. Maybe they have under utilised legal departments who needed to justify there hours.

  • Commentator

    Samsung and LG need good lawyers to win this one, like the Apple versus Samsung feud.

  • Ovann

    I’m tired of South Korea and their lawsuits, who do they think they are? I highly doubt Korea has more patents then USA & Japan.. They’re probably the most corrupt corporations in the world.. With what, the Hyundai workers in Korea always having strikes and Workers in Samsung having to sign agreements to never demand more pay..

    Look at the way they copy Apple and hahaa the South Korean government sued Apple for $2000!! Hahahaaa that must be embarrassing..

    And if they think their good then why are the average wages in Korea so low? Despite extreme levels of inflation to their artificially deflated currency..

    Korea is like a bridge between poor third world and developed countries.. They’re by no means more developed then nations like Singapore, Qatar etc..

    • gasman

      This is seriously such an ignorant, misinformed comment, It’s not even worth correcting.

    • idlebrain

      hmm. I think you just hate them.

      First of all, it doesn’t matter how many patents they have it’s more about how much related to the specific IP.

      Also, Workers don’t strike because the company is corrupted. They strike for the pay rise or better work environment.

      And I have no idea where you got no pay rise commitment stuff in Samsung. But what I know is Samsung is the one of the best paid company in South Korea. Their employee’s average salary was around 75 grand AUD last year.

      Their average income is not high as Australian but I would not say they are far behind.

      And I don’t know what is the definition of developed nation in your term. For me, Qatar has a lot of oil money but I would not call them as the developed country. There should be more things to consider than just money factor.

      It goes same to Singapore where has been ruled by father and son for half century.

    • Tien

      Let me guess, you own an Apple product and you are somewhat a fanboi of the fruit company

    • Anonymous

      remove yourself from the gene pool, please. F_ckwit.

  • Car Fanatic

    ^ Agreed, especially on the PRIMO clause.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1715760895 Charles Dean

    This is the terrible way to protect domestic auto maker.
    Now a days, only employee of Samsung and politician in Korea could buy German cars !!!

  • Simon

    Ovann,
    I cannot but reply to your post which shows such idiocracy. Samsung is the number two patent holder in the US and a vast number of LED related patents are held by the two Korean giants. On the contrary, the number of patent applications by Japanese firms are dwindling.

    Also on terms of development, don’t even bother talking about it if you haven’t been there. People complain that download speeds of 2MBps are TOO slow when the best you can do is greatly less than even 500kBps. Also, public infrastructure, Korea as the world’s 4th largest subway system with train intervals of 3-5 minutes, most buses are less than 5 minutes wait. Think of what we’ve gt down here. I lived in Brissy for 17 years but I can’t but compare how systems here in Aus could be much more efficient and more developed.

    Think of all the political feud here in Australia with the minority government, we don’t fare much better here either. Also, think about the levels of inflation thats driving even the middle class Aussies into the burden of debt whilst you can still grab a decent meal out in Korea for under 7 bucks.

    Also, Charles Dean, most Koreans are outraged by the fact that Hyundai/Kia place a domestic premim on their vehicles and often purchase cheaper priced Japanese vehicles. Also, it seems you haven’t read the article properly, it clearly states that there were more sales in Korea than in Australia, or else there must be truck loads of politicians and Samsung employees. Also, how is this a measure of protectionism, when FTAs with the US, EU are about to be effective, FTA talks are going on with China, Chile, and even Australia? It seems that Korea is obsessed with liberalisation.

  • bob

    I’m patenting and copyrighting this comment. If I find anyone copying it and pasting it elsewhere on the world wide webz, I’ll be suing you for $6 billion for infringements on my rights as a poster.

  • bob

    Please forward me your address for the lawsuit.

    Make the cheque out to bob for $6 billion.

  • chook

    Obviously south korea expects the world to buy everything from them and they will use any excuse to not buy anything back .I once heard of an instance where someone in south korea was denied buying fuel at a particular service station because the person had a foreign make of car . It wouldnt surprise me .

    • UniversityOfGoogle

      This is Korea we are talking about, enough said.

      Good luck to Korea bringing forward these kinds of lawsuits against Chinese companies infringing their patents.

  • Mad Max

    A bit like International Harvester in Dandenong in the very early 1980´s tried to stop delivereies of truck parts to the manufacturing plant unless they were delivered by an International truck. Funnily enough that never worked either. It got changed quickly when they ran out of parts!

  • simon

    Whatever. Just as an example,South Korea is Australia’s number 4 export partner, only behind China, US and Japan. Get some facts straight before you make a comment like this.