South Korea’s Seoul Semiconductor Co. said on Tuesday that it has filed a lawsuit with its affiliate Seoul Viosys Co. against American lighting company Archipelago Lighting, Inc. for alleged infringement of its patents in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

In its complaints, Seoul Semiconductor asserts that Archipelago Lighting’s various LED bulbs including filament LED bulbs violate its 12 patents related to its Acrich technology. The infringed patents cover LED driver technology for high-voltage operation and multi-junction technology (MJT) that are essential to fabrication and operation of a LED chip, it said.

Seoul Semiconductor’s Acrich technology enables designing of a high-voltage, high-power LED product with only a few LED units. Thanks to its LED driver technology optimized for high-voltage operation and MJT that allows mounting and integration of multiple LEDs in a narrow space, it is possible to simplify LED circuit design, which can significantly reduce the size and cost of LED products.

Acrich technology is now widely adopted not only in general lightings but also in a wide range of electrical devices and automobile lightings across the world including the United States, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan.

“In order to protect Acrich technology, which has been developed with considerable resources over many decades, we will continuously take any and all legal action against infringers that disregard our valuable intellectual property,” said Nam Ki-bum, head of Seoul Semiconductor R&D Center and chief technology officer.

Established in 1987, Seoul Semiconductor is one of the world’s top five LED companies. It holds over 10,000 patents, trademarks and design rights at home and abroad and has been aggressively seeking legal actions against its competitors that are allegedly violating its patents.

By Jin Young-tae

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