U.S. court dismisses case by Samsung’s former patent head

[Photo by MK DB]

A U.S. court has ruled in favor of Samsung Electronics Co. in a patent lawsuit filed by a former Samsung executive against the South Korean tech giant in the United States, with the court criticizing the plaintiff’s actions and deeming the lawsuit illegitimate.

According to sources from Thursday, the U.S. Eastern District Court of Texas sided with Samsung Electronics in a patent infringement lawsuit brought against it by Synergy IP, a company founded by Ahn Seung-ho, former vice president at Samsung Electronics.

The lawsuit, filed in collaboration with Staton Techiya LLC, alleged that Samsung had unlawfully utilized patents owned by Techiya in its wireless earphones and voice recognition features, among other technologies.

However, the court dismissed the case, stating that it was brought forth through serious misconduct and unclean hands.

The ruling highlighted that the lawsuit was deemed unlawful even before addressing the issue of patent infringement.

The court also noted that any possibility of a retrial was also ruled out. It emphasized that Ahn had violated his duty of loyalty to Samsung by unlawfully using confidential information to benefit the lawsuit.

According to the ruling, Ahn is under investigation by Korean authorities, and the U.S. court also received evidence and documents from the Korean prosecution and used them as a basis for its ruling.

The court’s decision underscored the severity of the unlawful actions, portraying them as dishonest, unfair, deceitful, and contrary to the rule of law. It deemed the dismissal of the retrial as the most appropriate remedy to uphold judicial integrity.

The ruling also shed light on the extent of Ahn’s misconduct, revealing that Ahn and others conspired with former Samsung subordinates to steal confidential Techiya-related materials before and after the lawsuit and used them in the lawsuit.

It was also mentioned that Ahn attempted to install an anti-forensic app to delete evidence related to the case.

The court also ordered that the judgment be forwarded to the ethics committees of the California and New York State Bar Associations for referral of Ahn’s misconduct.