Samsung, Solas end $78 million court fight over display patents

REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

(Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co and Irish patent-licensing company Solas OLED Ltd have agreed to end a Texas lawsuit over video-display patents that had spawned a damages award for Solas of nearly $78 million, according to a court filing.

The Friday filing said the parties agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled.

Terms of the agreement were not available, and the companies and their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Solas sued the Korean tech giant in East Texas in 2019, arguing Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and other products infringed its display patents.

A jury found last year that Samsung’s technology violated the Irish company’s rights in two patents and awarded it over $63 million, which the court later increased by $15 million in enhanced damages.

Samsung has since won rulings from a U.S. tribunal invalidating parts of both patents, and appealed the verdict to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in November, 2021.

The companies have squared off in several other patent cases, and Samsung sued Solas in Manhattan last year for allegedly violating a settlement agreement by continuing to prosecute existing lawsuits and bringing new ones.

That case has been paused pending other cases in Texas.

The Texas case is Solas OLED Ltd v. Samsung Display Co, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No. 2:19-cv-00152.

For Solas: Reza Mirzaie of Russ August & Kabat, John Ward of Ward Smith & Hill

For Samsung: Jeffrey Lerner and Robert Haslam of Covington & Burling, Melissa Smith of Gillam & Smith

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