
Seoul Viosys has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Hague District Court in the Netherlands, to prevent UV LED products being sold in European countries.
This litigation arose out of an earlier patent lawsuit filed by Seoul Viosys against FNAC Darty Group, a large European retailer, in France in September 2021. At that time, the Judicial Court of Paris ordered the search and seizure of evidence of suspected infringement against FNAC Darty Group. Based on that seizure, Seoul Viosys learned that allegedly infringing UV LED products are being imported and distributed from the Netherlands, hence the case against THMM International, a Netherlands trading company.
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Seoul Viosys is a subsidiary of Seoul Semiconductor and along with SETi, a US-based UV LED pioneer, co-developed and mass-produced the world’s first UV LED that emits UV light with optical semiconductor technology. This has seen a boom during the Covid-19 pandemic to sterilize air, water and surfaces.
Seoul Viosys has been conducting various sterilization experiments using its Violeds technology since 2019. In July 2021, in a joint experiment with a research team at the Virology Research Institute of Korea University College of Medicine, it was confirmed that Violeds sterilized the Delta variant (SARS-CoV-2: B.1.617.2) 99.3% in one second. Further tests at confirmed that the Omicron virus exposed to the Violeds LED was sterilized 99.99% in only one second.
“Seoul Viosys, SETi and Nitride Semiconductors, its strategic partner in Japan, have developed, owned and mass produced this technology for many years. No one else can develop optical semiconductor UV LED technology without using our fundamental patents,” said Youngjoo Lee, CEO of Seoul Viosys.
Seoul Viosys is the top producer of such UV LEDs, with its Violeds covering all wavelengths ranging from 200nm to 1600nm, and holds more than 4,000 patents related to UV LED technology. It has taken legal action in South Korea, Japan, the US and Europe and says it has won all thirty cases that it has brought over the last three years in six different countries.
“Seoul’s UV LEDs will continue to lead the world in products for clean air and water, as well as sterilizing against dangerous contaminants like coronavirus. Seoul has not only increased the capacity of such products by five times, it has done so while producing products at significantly lower prices,” said Lee.
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