Samsung has lodged an appeal against a recent $62.7 million (€51.8 million) intellectual property infringement victory by Dublin-based patents firm Solas OLED. The move comes as the Irish company earlier this month filed another three lawsuits against the tech giant.
Solas OLED was awarded the multimillion payout in March after a Texas jury ruled Samsung infringed two of its patents by using them in the OLED displays of the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note smartphones.
In addition to the three new lawsuits filed, Solas also has cases pending against the consumer electronics giant before the International Trade Commission and in Germany. The non-practising entity also has lawsuits pending against other big-name companies, including Apple.
Established in 2016, Solas is an OLED technology licensing company that has patents covering the design, circuitry and manufacturing of OLED displays. Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is an advanced technology that produces a superior image. It is used in a wide variety of products including televisions, smartphones, tablets and watches.
Samsung last week filed papers in the US for an appeal against the $62.7 million win.
"Samsung certainly has the legal right to appeal. However, we are confident that when all motions and appeals are decided, the jury's verdict will be upheld," said Aoife Butler, general counsel for Solas OLED.
Breach of patents
Solas is one of a number of so-called "non-practising entries" that share directors and the same address in Dublin. These companies , which also include Data Scape, Aris Technologies, Sonai Memory Ltd and Ariana Technologies, do not produce anything of their own but instead go after companies alleged to be in breach of patents they have acquired.
The companies are managed by Atlantic IP Services and backed by Magnetar Capital, which has $12.9 billion in assets under management. The companies also include Neodron, which earlier this year reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with 10 of the world's largest consumer electronics giants for infringements of patents related to touchscreen technology that it previously acquired from Microchip Technologies.
Another company managed by Atlantic IP Services is Scramoge Technology, which earlier this month acquired more than 100 patents from LG. This came after LG earlier this year agreed to license Solas's patent portfolio, allowing it to legally use its patents in the products it makes both for itself and for other consumer electronics companies such as Sony and Panasonic.
The licensing deal resolved a number of patent infringement actions and came after Solas won an important case against LG in Germany last November.
