A case related to the patent for silicone resin for LED sealing
A leading chemical materials company in South Korea, S company, manufactured silicone resin for LED sealing and supplied it to various LED companies at home and abroad. D company, the world’s leading technology company in silicon, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against S company. The disputed patent, regarding silicon compositions, limited the characteristic and property of resin materials, and their application field in addition to composition ratio. Because although other companies had filed for invalidation trial against the patent, its inventive step was recognized by the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board, S company was in a position to be imposed a patent infringement ban. However, AIP, representing S company from an invalidation trial at the Patent Court of Korea stage, based on the legal principles for judging patentability of so-called ‘parameter limitation invention,’ in which characteristic or property is limited, and developed the delicate point of arguments regarding the influenceability of limitation on application field over patentability. As a result, AIP could elicit a ruling on invalidation of the patent and won the patent infringement trial, which led to an opportunity that S company can compete with the world’s best silicon company.