WONIK QnC won its second trial of a patent litigation, which was filed by Ushio from Japan, after losing the first trial. David defeated Goliath in this patent litigation battle that had drawn people’s attention.
WONIK QnC, which is a subsidiary of WONIK Group, made an announcement on the 12th that it won its second trial of a litigation against infringement of patent filed by Ushio regarding excimer VUV lamp. Ushio is the top business that practically monopolizes global markets for industrial lamps.
Excimer VUV lamp developed by WONIK QnC cleanses organic matters that from during display processes with light. In 2015, Ushio filed a lawsuit against WONIK QnC for invading three of its patents on design and one of its patents on formation of components within quartz tubes.
Circular excimer lamp is at the center of this patent litigation. This lamp causes 172nm of short wavelength and separates bonds between atoms or organic matters and removes these organic matters from display panels or wafers.
Circular excimer VUV lamp, which looks similar to regular fluorescent lights, does shine its light on panels evenly. To overcome this weakness, lamps can be placed after making separate quartz tubes.
Considering the fact that it is expensive to manufacture quartz tubes, Ushio commercialized quadrilateral excimer lamps. WONIK QnC also has been developing quadrilateral excimer lamps. However, its R&D process has been delayed due to a lawsuit filed by Ushio.
Although Ushio proposed that WONIK QnC invaded its patents when it came to formation of components within quartz tubes, it was not recognized during the second trial.
“Because formation of components within a quartz tube is identical to manufacturing of quadrilateral lamps, we would not be able to participate in quadrilateral lamp markets at all in the future if the verdict was ruled that WONIK QnC indeed invaded Ushio’s patents.” said a representative for WONIK QnC. “We have developed our products after doing 15 years of research and we have made it clear that we did not invade Ushio’s patents from the start.
Two businesses had been in fierce battles involving patents over two years. When Ushio claimed for damage for invading its patents, WONIK QnC countered Ushio’s claim with trials for confirming scope of patent right. During the first trial, WONIK QnC was ruled that it invaded three of four patents of Ushio. Second trial started after WONIK QnC objected to the verdict of the first trial, and it expanded up to twelve patents when Ushio reduced the scope of its patents and filed a lawsuit again against WONIK QnC. WONIK QnC however is predicting that it will ultimately be the winner of this lawsuit even if Ushio files additional appeals in the future as it won every cases of the second trial.
Although size of global markets for industrial excimer lamps is only worth tens of millions of dollars, they have been monopolized by Japanese companies.
“Because this market was monopolized by Japanese companies for many years, we would have no choice but to rely on foreign products continuously if we did not do anything about it.” said a representative for WONIK QnC. “We are going to speed up our R&D process, which had been slowed due to the lawsuit, and continue to increase our competitive edge in technologies by looking at possibilities of applying our products to various fields and others and expand our businesses.”
Staff Reporter Bae, Okjin | withok@etnews.com