LG InnoTek succeeds in nullifying Corephotonics patents

Corephotonics has withdrawn its patent violation against LG InnoTek in South Korea filed in the Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday.

This was due the lawsuit being meaningless as validity of Corephotonics’ patents were rejected by South Korea’s IP Trail and Appeal Board (KIPO) in July. 

LG InnoTek filed the patent invalidation suited against Corephotonics in 2019 __ in response to the Israeli company’s patent lawsuit filed against it back in 2018.

Corephotonics told the Central District Court that it plans to appeal against the patent board’s judgment.

The pair’s dispute will now shift focus to whether the patents are valid again.

Despite it being the legal battle between LG InnoTek and Corephotonics, it is also very much a dispute between Apple and Samsung. Apple is LG InnoTek’s biggest camera module client and Corephotonics was acquired by Samsung last year.

The two smartphone makers are competing in the smartphone folded zoom market.

Folded zoom uses prism to bend light used in image sensors which can make the modules smaller.

Samsung applied the technology for the first time on its Galaxy S20 Ultra while Apple plans to apply the technology on iPhones launching in 2022. 

Apple is yet to announce the development of the technology and its supplier O’Film Group has said it has folded zoom technology but the Chinese firm is part US government’s sanction list.

Corephotonics lacked behind in the development of telephoto lens but is ahead in folded zoom, a person familiar with the matter said. The company has its eyes set on the folded zoom market that is expected to grow and will take the legal battle with LG to the end, they said.

Corephotonics was also involved directly with Apple in patent disputes over telephoto lens. The Israeli company withdrew its first suit against Cupertino in 2017 but filed new ones in 2018 and 2019. It has added new iPhones every year to its lawsuit __ from iPhone 7 Plus to XS Max.