Pioneer sues Samsung SDI for patent infringement

A Japanese multinational corporation, Pioneer is suing Samsung SDI Co. and several other Samsung companies in the United States for alleged breach of its patents for flat panel technology, the company that specializes in digital entertainment products, said on Monday.

Tokyo, Japan based Pioneer Corp. said that it has filed a complaint against Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. (SDI) and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Texas, alleging SDI's violation of Pioneer patents related to plasma display panel (PDP) technology.

Pioneer seeks the court to order Samsung SDI from selling products that allegedly infringe its patents and compensation for past infringement.

“Pioneer has been negotiating in good faith with SDI for a license to Pioneer's plasma display panel patent portfolio since April of 2005. Pioneer, however, determined that litigation was necessary in order to protect the value of its intellectual property in the PDP product field,” Pioneer spokesman Kesanobu Yamagishi said in a press release.

Pioneer is a leading innovator in plasma display panel technology and has developed a portfolio of fundamental patents in the field. The company alleges that Samsung SDI has trespassed patents covering technology that increases the brightness of plasma display panels and surface discharge display technology.

On the other hand, the world's top plasma display panel maker, Samsung SDI said it intends to file a counter complaint against Pioneer, although no date has been set so far.

South Korean Samsung SDI has been producing digital products of frontier level on the basis of world top display technology in the wide range. It has world’s largest PDP panel of 102 inch, SGS (Super Grain Silicon) technology for OLED, digital- slim tube, and Lithium-ion Battery, the heart of mobile communication.

Pioneer's latest legal bid is the newest in a string of intellectual property suits and counter-suits between Japanese companies and their Asian competitors as they seek to maintain a technological edge.

Samsung SDI, which is also involved in another plasma display patent suit with Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., and Pioneer had been in negotiations since April 2005 about license and cross-licensing agreements for the plasma display technology, but the talks were overturned, Yamagishi said.

On Pioneers latest move, a Samsung SDI official, who refused to be identified said, "This appears to be a strategic move by Pioneer to get an edge in the talks," asserting that the case would have no impact on Samsung SDI's sales and its PDP output.

The market for PDPs, used in flat-panel televisions, is estimated to nearly double in five years to $28 billion dollars in 2010, according to Austin based DisplaySearch, which is the world leader in research on Flat Panel Displays and the systems that include them.

Pioneer shares surged 1.21% to 2,095 yen, yesterday while Samsung shares jumped 2.64% to 77,700 yen.