Global Thermonuclear Litigation
Oh Apple, what have you started?
LG Display filed a retaliatory patent lawsuit against Samsung today over OLED tech used in Sammy's smartphones and tablets. LG told a press conference that it was claiming that Sammy had infringed on seven of its display patents, just a few weeks after Samsung filed in Seoul claiming more or less the same thing about LG, the …
On Tursday 27th September at 13:10 an Anonymous Coward said, "Yet here we have Samsung using stolen code on stolen technology"
Ah yes*, the 'Matthew Hopkins Principle' at work, where accusation alone is enough to constitute the desired proof of malefactory and otherwise villainous deeds. Splendid! 1645 here we come again. Isn't progress great?
*Assuming your comment is addressing the article itself and not other recent events.
LG is talking about patents.
Samsung is talking about trade secrets.
I wonder what happens if you obtain a trade secret from somebody, and then file a patent on it. Because the original was a trade secret, the originator could not claim prior art because there is a real possibility that someone else could have developed the technology in isolation. They would have to prove some form of industrial espionage and get the patent re-assigned, but I'm not even sure whether industrial espionage is a chargeable offence.
That is the risk of going with trade secrets rather than patents. Patents are protected in return for releasing the information about it to the world. A trade secret isn't released to the world, so the inventor keeps it to themselves - but only as long as whatever it is isn't leaked.
Regarding the question about what the legal position of the trade (ex-) secret holder is vis-a-vis a patent holder who got hold of the secret, in general, they are screwed, though, as long as the evidence is there that they did indeed invent it but chose to keep it secret, it is unlikely that they will be liable for damages. It effectively puts the tech into the public domain, since prior art can be demonstrated, so the patent isn't valid.
I thought LG's biggest invention was creating a LCD price fixing cartel