A VentureBeat report said Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co filed a lawsuit against British firm Dyson for patent infringement. Samsung said in its lawsuit that Dyson's original legal claim over one of the former's vacuum cleaners has caused corporate damage to the company. The Korean firm is seeking KRW10 billion or $9.43 million in damages.
Telling Korea Times, Samsung said, "We are initially seeking 10bn won from the UK-based manufacturer. However, the amount will increase depending on how the court proceedings go. Samsung's marketing activities were negatively affected by Dyson's groundless litigation, which is intolerable."
In September of last year, it can be recalled that Dyson filed a lawsuit against the electronics maker when the latter unveiled its "Motion Sync" vacuum at a consumer electronics show in Berlin, VentureBeat said. Sir James Dyson, who is the company founder of the British firm, called off Samsung for ripping off its patented vacuum-steering system. Samsung immediately produced documents that the company indeed had worked on its "Motion Sync" vacuum for around a year, and Dyson later withdrew its claim over the vacuum's steering technology as it deemed that it would not be able to win against the electronics giant.
Following Dyson's withdrawal, Samsung's co-CEO Boo-Keun Yoon was quoted to have retored, "The most unproductive innovation is a patent litigation."
VentureBeat said the amount in damages being sought by Samsung was fairly minimal to both companies, but the award could increase should Central District Court in Seoul decided to side with Samsung. However, the technology blog said that Samsung's decision to countersue Dyson was based on principle.
Dyson has reportedly filed lawsuits with its competitors for patent infringement rigorously. In 2009, the High Court of Britain issued an order for Samsung to pay $850,000 to Dyson for infringing the latter's "triple cyclone" patents. Samsung's countersuit could have been a strategic move for the electronics giant to prevent similar incidents to happen in the future, Venturebeat postulated.
