LG Innotek on Thursday said it has filed a lawsuit against Osram’s Chinese corporation and another company called Hella for infringing patent rights for light-emitting diode technology.
LG Innotek filed the suit at a court in Beijing, demanding Osram cease selling its LED products and also seeking compensation for damages.
Osram is a light-manufacturing unit of Siemens AG, while Hella is a global manufacturer of car parts that supplies LED headlamps using Osram’s LED packages.
LG Innotek said it filed the suit against five types of LED lighting including the headlamps.
With the move to file litigation in a Chinese court, LG Innotek said it is now expanding its legal dispute with Osram to a global level including Europe, the U.S. and South Korea.
LG and Osram have been battling in the courts after Osram last month accused LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics of infringing patent rights for LED technology.
Osram filed complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission, a U.S. district court and a German court.
LG Electronics and LG Innotek, in a tit-for-tat move, immediately lodged a lawsuit against Osram with a Seoul court, seeking cash compensation and a court order to block the German company from using its LED patents.
In addition, the two LG affiliates said in a statement that they requested the Seoul-based commission to investigate seven cases involving LED lighting and LED chip and packaging technologies used in vehicles.
The commission is authorized to impose import bans on products found to violate patents.
Further, LG Innotek has now requested the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban the import of products manufactured by not only Osram, but two of its affiliates, and also filed a suit with the federal court of Delaware requesting to ban the sales of those products and for compensation for damages.
