KAIST files patent suits against Samsung in Texas

KAIST IP, an intellectual property management firm under KAIST, has filed a suit on Texas Federal District Court against Samsung Electronics America, Global Foundry and Qualcomm requesting semiconductor technology patent usage fees. KAIST claims that these companies have misused the chip technology patent rights jointly owned by Seoul National University Professor Lee Jong-ho and KAIST.

The technology in question is an ultra-small transistor called FinFet. It seeks high density integration of chips while making the chips ultra-small and at the same time ensuring efficiency is not reduced while raising power efficiency. The technology is key to materializing high performing mobile phones being produced and sold today.

The technology is already being used by many companies. Intel in 2011 applied FinFet to its products and in 2012 acknowledged its technological capability to sign an official license contract. Samsung, Global Foundry and Taiwan's TSCM followed and rolled out mobile phones by producing chips based on FinFet. KAIST IT claims that these three companies however are not paying patent usage fees. Qualcomm is provided by Samsung and Global Foundry of such products.

Samsung Electronics is known to be using FinFet on more than a dozen mobile phone models including its Galaxy series. "We proposed a contract when we developed FinFet but Samsung did not accept it. Though it started to make mobile phones using FinFet it resisted paying patent fees," KAIST IP said. On this matter, Samsung said it can't comment since the lawsuit is ongoing.