Samsung Electronics has filed a lawsuit demanding 10bn Korean won (£5.6m) in compensation from the British appliance maker Dyson because it claims it was depicted as a copycat.
The lawsuit, filed last week in the Seoul district court in Korea, were filed against Dyson because its “previous litigation has hurt Samsung’s corporate image”, the company told the Korea Times.
The move follows the decision by Dyson in October 2013 to drop a patent infringement case that it brought against Samsung in August, in which it claimed that the Korean giant had copied the steering system used in its Motion Sync cleaner from the Dyson DC37 and DC39 cleaners, which had then been on sale for two years.
Samsung was able to defend itself against Dyson’s case by presenting “prior art” - an example of the idea being used before Dyson had patented it.
Samsung said when the lawsuit was withdrawn that it would establish the damage to its brand image and whether to act. Now it has.
“We are initially seeking 10bn won from the UK-based manufacturer. However, the amount will increase depending on how the court proceedings go,” Samsung’s spokesperson told the Korea Times. “Samsung’s marketing activities were negatively affected by Dyson’s groundless litigation, which is intolerable.”
A Dyson spokesperson said that it had not received a copy of the formal complaint. “We’re not apologising,” he added.
It is not the first time that Samsung Electronics has been accused of copying a rival. A high-profile case against Apple began in 2011 with an accusation by the iPhone maker that some Samsung phone and tablet designs “slavishly copies” that of early models of the iPhone smartphone and iPad tablet. Apple won the case relating to copying of the appearance of the iPhone 3GS, though not its iPad.
When Dyson filed its suit in August, its chief executive James Dyson said: “Although they are copying Dyson’s patented technology, their machine is not the same. Samsung has many patent lawyers so I find it hard not to believe that this is a deliberate or utterly reckless infringement of our patent.”
Following the latest salvo from Samsung, Dyson said in a statement: “Dyson pioneered cyclonic vacuum cleaners and digital motors – and has been developing them ever since. We patent our technology, and naturally defend it. It is surprising that a company over 100 times bigger than Dyson is so worried. The patent system offers us some protection but not enough: with an army of lawyers, hidden prior art is occasionally found and ways to design around existing patents identified.”
James Dyson has been a fierce defender of patents and intellectual property, fighting and winning a number of high-profile court cases to defend innovations in the company’s products. In 2012, it accused German rival Bosch of planting a spy in its research lab – claims that the company denied. Dyson has also taken a tough line against Chinese firms and challenged Chinese-owned Vax over the appearance of a product that Dyson felt looked similar to Dyson’s DC02 cleaner. The claims against Vax were rejected by the British courts.
• This article was amended on 19 February 2014 to correct a description of the lawsuit.
