Linklaters represents Seoul Semiconductor and Seoul Viosys in a successful lawsuit before the UPC

Linklaters represented Korean LED manufacturers Seoul Semiconductor and Seoul Viosys in a successful lawsuit before the Düsseldorf Local Division of the new Unified Patent Court (UPC).

With its decision, the UPC handed down a permanent injunction against the online retail platform expert e-Commerce GmbH as well as expert klein GmbH, which operates 25 consumer electronics stores. The injunction prevents them from reselling certain smartphones deemed to infringe an LED patent. The defendants had sought to invalidate the asserted patent, which was, however, fully maintained by the court.

The patent in question is EP3926698 (“light-emitting diode”). The accused technology is a light-emitting diode (LED) found on the back of certain Android smartphones made by Emporia. The injunction covers Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

The Linklaters patent litigation team was led by partners Dr. Bolko Ehlgen and Dr. Julia Schönbohm. Other team members included Cordt-Magnus von Geuns-Rosch (associate, all Frankfurt) and Dr. Olaf Isfort (European Patent Attorney, Schneiders & Behrendt).

Dr. Julia Schönbohm said, “The patent litigation success story of our clients continues with their first case - and win- at the European stage before the UPC.”

“We are delighted to have represented them and obtained one of the first injunctions from the UPC based on a fully maintained patent”, adds Dr. Bolko Ehlgen.