Signify Ordered to Recall Products for Infringing Seoul Semiconductor Patents
Seoul Semiconductor recently filed a series of patent lawsuits against rival lighting companies and global retailers
Signify, the Dutch multinational lighting company formerly known as Philips Lighting LIGHT 0.48%increase; green up pointing triangle, has been ordered by a German court to recall products allegedly infringing on patents of South Korea’s Seoul Semiconductor 046890 1.78%increase; green up pointing triangle for more than seven years.
A court in Düsseldorf, Germany, last week dismissed Signify’s request to invalidate the patents in question and imposed an immediate sales ban on all of the company’s Philips-brand goods that a ruling said violated patent rights, a Seoul Semiconductor executive told Dow Jones Newswires on Thursday.
The court on Dec. 17 ordered Eindhoven-based Signify to recall and destroy all patent-infringing goods sold through European multinational retailer Conrad Electronic since March 29, 2017. The court also ruled that Signify should be fined $250,000 for any single violation of the sales ban, the executive said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the information hasn’t been made public.
The executive said that the ruling focuses on patented technology, not just individual products, and that the technology applies to products beyond the Philips brand.
Signify, which reported more than $7 billion in revenue last year, said when contacted that it is still actively involved in the continuing patent case.
“Signify is not a defendant in the patent infringement litigation,” Tom Lodge of the company’s corporate communications team said in an email. “Signify is of the opinion that these patents are invalid and therefore [the company] started the current patent invalidity case.”
Seoul Semiconductor personnel said the German court’s decision upheld an earlier ruling that Signify had infringed on their company’s patented technology for lighting with “a color rendering index above 70” to reproduce the colors of objects as close as possible to those in nature.
They said the court decision could have a sizable impact on a global lighting-product market that tops $100 billion in annual sales, as well as on other continuing patent disputes.
Seoul Semiconductor recently filed a series of patent lawsuits against rival lighting companies and global retailers. The light-emitting diode maker said it holds around 18,000 patents after spending nearly $100 million annually in research and development over the past two decades.