Taiwanese company sues LG.Philips

Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp., the world’s fourth-biggest maker of liquid-crystal displays, sued LG.Philips LCD Co., claiming its larger rival infringed four patents.
Chi Mei filed the complaint on May 4 in Marshall, Texas. The suit accuses LG.Philips, a joint venture between Korea’s LG Electronics Inc. and Royal Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands, of deliberately using its patented technology for LCDs without permission.
The Tainan, Taiwan-based company has been damaged by LG.Philips, the world’s No. 2 LCD display maker, and “will suffer irreparable injury” unless the court issues an order barring further unauthorized use of the inventions, Chi Mei said in its complaint.
The Taiwanese company is also seeking cash compensation.
The dispute between the two companies is over technology used to make LCD flat-panel computers and television displays.
LCD sales totaled about $69 billion in 2006, researcher DisplaySearch estimates.
LG.Philips hasn’t received the lawsuit and will respond once it gets the details of the complaint, the company said in an e-mailed statement in Seoul yesterday.
Shares of LG.Philips LCD Co. rose 1,100 won (about 2.8 percent) to 41,000 won in Seoul.
Samsung Electronics Co., based in Suwon, Korea, is the world’s biggest maker of LCDs. And AU Optronics, based in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is the third largest.
The case is Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. v. LG.Philips LCD Co., no. 2:07cv176, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Marshall).