Seoul Viosys files patent lawsuit against Feit Electric in U.S.

[Courtesy of Seoul Viosys]

Seoul Viosys, a subsidiary of Seoul Semiconductor and a leading company in the optoelectronic semiconductor industry, announced on Tuesday that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Feit Electric, the largest home lighting company in the United States. The lawsuit was submitted to a federal district court in California.

In the complaint, Seoul Viosys claims that Feit Electric’s LED lighting products infringe on six of its patents, including the omnidirectional filament LED package co-developed by Seoul Semiconductor and Seoul Viosys. Filament-type products are used in approximately half of all household bulbs, making this a significant issue for the company.

This is not the company’s first time litigating over filament LED technology, with the Düsseldorf Regional Court in Germany ruling in 2020 that products from a Philips Lighting subsidiary infringed on Seoul Semiconductor’s patent for improving the light extraction efficiency of filament LEDs. The court ordered that the infringing products be permanently banned from being sold, along with their recall and destruction.

Following this ruling, Seoul Semiconductor’s filament LED patents gained enforcement across 18 European countries, including Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Italy, with the launch of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) in 2023.

Seoul Semiconductor has a long-standing commitment to research and development in the optoelectronics field, investing over 10 percent of its revenue over the past 30 years. The company has developed second-generation LED technology and holds more than 18,000 patents related to LEDs. One of its key innovations is the WICOP technology, which allows for the creation of LEDs without the need for wires, an essential requirement for micro-LED production.

Seoul Viosys highlighted its robust defense of intellectual property, saying that the company has won all of its 102 lawsuits filed in eight countries over the past 20 years.