LG wins two cases in U.S. brought by ‘patent troll’

A U.S. appeals court upheld two separate lower court decisions that acquitted LG Electronics of the same patent infringement charge brought by the Multimedia Patent Trust.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday ruled that LG did not infringe on two patents relating to video compression technology as asserted by MPT, affirming a December 2012 federal district court jury verdict for the Korean company. The first court decision was made in southern California in February 2013.

The circuit court also upheld LG’s August 2013 district court win on preclusion grounds. The second suit was also brought by MPT and involved the same two patents.

According to LG, MPT filed the accusation against it in 2010, claiming that 69 mobile phone models by LG infringed two of its video compression-related patents. Most of the products affected by the lawsuit are no longer marketable, but the company welcomed the court decision regardless.

“We are very pleased that the appeals court has vindicated the position we have maintained all along ? that LG products do not infringe MPT’s patents,” said Kim Joo-sup, vice president of the Intellectual Property Center at LG Electronics. “With hundreds of such patents of our own, LG Electronics is a leader in the very type of video compression technology MPT had wrongly accused LG of infringing.”

An LG official called MPT a “patent troll” and said the company will continue to challenge claims by such companies.

BY MOON GWANG-LIP [joe@joongang.co.kr]