LG sues China’s TCL for LTE patent infringement
LG Electronics has filed a patent suit against Chinese electronics maker TCL in Germany for infringing on its intellectual property rights in cellphone communication technologies, the company said Sunday.
The tech company said it filed the lawsuit at the district courts of Mannheim and Dusseldorf in Germany on Nov. 6, saying the Chinese maker used three essential longterm evolution (LTE) network technologies patented by LG without securing a licensing agreement.
LG added it decided to take legal action in a bid to protect its patent technologies. The LTE technology is a 4G wireless communications standard and LG has essential patents in the technology.
“Since LG sent a letter of warning to TCL in 2016, we have tried to negotiate a licensing agreement with TCL several times, but the Chinese company didn’t respond,” an LG official said adding TCL infringed three of its patents.
TCL is estimated to have sold more than 15 million smartphones in the global market in 2018 according to data by market researcher Strategy Analytics.
This is the third time LG has taken legal action against smartphone makers, following lawsuits against U.S.based manufacturer BLU in March 2017 and Wiko of France in June 2018. In the wake of the lawsuits, LG reached a licensing deal with BLU and won the first trial against Wiko.
The company has taken a strong stance against companies that infringe on its patented technologies. On Nov. 5, it filed a patent infringement lawsuit with a U.S. court against Chinese TV maker Hisense, claiming that most of Hisense’s TVs sold in the U.S. violated its patents.
LG has been a leader in telecommunication technology-related patents. According to Germany-based researcher IPLytics, the company owned 11 percent of patents in fifth-generation (5G) network technology as of July.
It is also the leading company in essential LTE technology-related patents. The company held the most LTE and LTE-Advanced patents in the U.S. for five consecutive years from 2012 to 2016, according to U.S.-based patent consulting firm TechIPm.
“Intellectual property rights are the result of LG’s ceaseless research and development efforts. We will keep taking strict action against unfair use of our technologies,” said Jeon Saeng-gyu, head of LG’s intellectual property center.