A Samsung Electronics researcher has sued the firm for allegedly failing to provide proper compensation for patent technologies he developed, according to Korean news reports Tuesday.

The patents are related to technologies involved in a legal case that Samsung had won against Apple a few years ago. 


The researcher, who was not identified, filed a 200 million won ($184,000) lawsuit against Samsung. He is expected to revise up the number to 5 billion won based on the court’s guideline, the reports said.

The technologies at issue include ways to encode and decode the transmission rate of multiple access communication systems.

The technologies had sparked a legal battle with Apple a few years ago. Both firms had argued their patents were infringed by the other. In 2013, the United States International Trade Commission decided in favor of Samsung.

The researcher was quoted as saying, “During the legal battle, Samsung asked me to support the case but after winning the case, the firm has never mentioned the name of the inventor and given me due compensation or promotion.”

Samsung declined to comment, as the case is still ongoing, but said, “The researcher excessively overstated the value of his patents and the patents barely contributed to the firm’s sales and profits,” in a petition submitted to the court.

The researcher reportedly developed a total of 1,654 patent technologies under Samsung Electronics while working for standard research teams and the next-generation business team at Samsung DMC Research Center.

Under the Invention Promotion Act’s Article 15, under a contract or employment regulations, an employee is entitled to fair compensation when the employer succeeds in acquiring a patent for the employee’s invention.

By Shin Ji-hye(shinjh@heraldcorp.com)