LG joins BMW, Audi to Osram infrigment suit row

LG Electronics said that they have officially filed a lawsuit with a South Korean court seeking to block some local branches of Germany’s BMW AG and Audi AG from selling vehicles equipped with lighting products made by Osram, which the Korean company allege infringe their patents.

“We’ve expanded the legal fight to auto makers using LED package products manufactured by Osram, as the infringed products are having an increasingly negative impact on the fast-growing local LED industry,” LG Electronics said in a statement.

Osram is the world’s No.2 lighting company after Philips, ahead of General Electric Co. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of patent litigation involving LG Electronics, Samsung LED and Osram.  This move however, is seen as a retaliation after Osram recently filed a complaint in Korea against LG, as well as Samsung, for patent violations ― a move it has already taken in four other countries including China and the United States.

``LG sued Osram at the Seoul Central District Court for purportedly infringing on LG-owned patents such as LED chips and packaging technologies that are widely used in LED light bulbs and cars,’’ said Lim Young-min, a senior LG spokesman.  LEDs are becoming increasingly popular and are widely used in aviation, automobiles, televisions and mobile phone screens. The two LG companies have 4,000 patent rights globally related to LED technology. The move opens a new front in the continuing legal spat between the South Korean companies and Osram over light-emitting-diode lighting technology, as they struggle for dominance in a fast-growing LED lighting market. LED lights, once used primarily in indicator lamps, are now installed in television screens and aviation and automotive lighting, as well as traffic signals.

"We've expanded the legal fight to auto makers using LED package products manufactured by Osram, as the infringed products are having an increasingly negative impact on the fast-growing local LED industry," LG Electronics said in a statement. The company asked the court to issue an interim injunction to block the sales while the case is being argued.

Osram's Korean unit declined to comment. A spokesman for BMW said he couldn't yet confirm that an injunction had been received, adding that the company would have to "examine the matter extensively" before it could comment. A spokesman for Volkswagen AG's Audi brand said it hasn't yet received an injunction.

Osram's move is said to be in response to a complaint LG had filed to the trade commission against Osram in July, seeking a ban on the importation of the company's LED products into Korea. 

If the court allows LG's request, that could be a setback to BMW, the world's largest luxury carmaker, and Audi, a unit of Volkswagen. Korean sales account for just around 1 percent of these carmakers' global sales, but European models are steadily gaining market share in Korea following a free-trade deal with the European Union in July.

BMW, the most popular imported brand in Korea, raised its market share sharply in the country as Japanese rivals lost ground following the earthquake there in March. BMW sold 16,579 cars in the first eight months of this year, up 62 percent from a year ago, and owns 24 percent of the imported-car market in Korea, according to data by Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.

Audi also increased sales by a quarter to 6,668 cars in the first eight months of this year to take 9.6 percent of the imported-car market. Imported cars account for less than 10 percent of South Korea's auto market dominated by local brands such as Hyundai Motor , but sales growth is far outstripping that of domestic companies.