A U.S. court dismissed a patent lawsuit filed against Samsung Electronics by former Vice President Ahn Seung-ho, who served as head of Samsung Electronics' IP Center.
The court unusually criticized the indiscriminate practice of patent litigation, stating that this lawsuit was an ‘abhorrent act against the rule of law.’ It was believed that former Vice President Ahn and others had illegally stolen Samsung's confidential data and filed a patent lawsuit.
According to the business community on the 23rd, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled in favor of Samsung in the patent infringement lawsuit filed against Samsung Electronics by the U.S. patent management company ‘Synergy IP’ and the patent holder ‘Tekiya’ on the 9th.
Synergy IP is a company founded by former Vice President Ahn, who oversaw patent affairs at Samsung Electronics. Former Vice President Ahn was an engineer-turned-American lawyer and was famous as a patent expert within Samsung Electronics. Since 2010, he has served as the head of the IP Center at the headquarters, leading major cases such as patent litigation with Apple, and was called Samsung's ‘patent commander.’
However, the U.S. court said in its ruling, “Former Vice President Ahn violated his duty of good faith to Samsung as a lawyer by using Samsung’s internal secrets to file a lawsuit,” and added, “With the support of the company while working at Samsung Electronics, he qualified as a lawyer at an American law school.” He strongly criticized his action in filing a lawsuit using the internal data he acquired, saying, “It is a dishonest, deceptive, and disgusting act that goes against the rule of law.”
Considering the seriousness of this issue, the U.S. court issued an order to deliver a ruling so that former Vice President Ahn's illegal actions can be referred to the ethics committee of the California and New York State Bar Associations.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Ahn is known to be under investigation by Korean prosecutors on charges of conspiring with a Samsung patent officer he worked with during his tenure to steal confidential patent data from Samsung Electronics IP Center before and after the lawsuit.
In the industrial world, there is an assessment that the U.S. court sounded an alarm at the behavior of a high-ranking executive who served as Samsung's patent chief, who took the lead in stealing confidential information and filing a large-amount patent lawsuit at a time when patent lawsuits against domestic companies are continuing.