U.S.-based non-practicing entities filed 128 lawsuits against South Korea-based firms in 2014, an intellectual property union said Wednesday, adding big-name tech players, such as Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., were major targets.
  

Samsung faced 49 patent claims from U.S. NPEs last year, while LG was also slapped with 40 suits, the data compiled by anti-NPE cooperative UnifiedPatents showed. NPEs, also known as "patent trolls," refer to entities that generate profits from licensing or enforcing patents.
  

Hyundai Motor Group, the world's No. 5 carmaker that has Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. under its wing, also faced 26 cases of NPE-driven patent disputes last year, trailed by 13 lawsuits held by Pantech Co., South Korea's No. 3 smartphone maker.
  

UnifiedPatents added Samsung, one of the world's leading smartphone makers, was slapped with the third-largest amount of patent claims from NPEs in the U.S., after Apple Inc. and Google Inc.
  

Established in 2012, UnifiedPatents has 70 members, such as Google, and seeks to take counteractions against NPE lawsuits. (Yonhap)