Patent Dispute Trends – 5G Communication Patent Litigation Continues

Jong-hwa Yoon Patent Attorney

The competition related to 5G communication technology, which started as a technology competition, is continuing in patent litigation.

South Korea succeeded in the world’s first 5G commercialization about 2 hours ahead of the United States in April 2019 after a fierce game of cat and mouse. When major foreign media, such as Reuters, reported that South Korea had succeeded in the world’s first 5G commercialization, US telecom companies Verizon and AT&T were furious and immediately objected.

Pegasus Wireless Innovation (hereinafter referred to as ‘Pegasus’), a U.S.-based company, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against three major U.S. telecom giants, Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Pegasus alleges that the three telecom giants have willfully infringed 11 KT LTE and 5G patents. The company is seeking damages and future royalties for the infringement. Pegasus claims that the infringement began as early as December 2022 and that those three telecom giants have refused to cooperate, leading to the lawsuit.

The Eastern District of Texas is known to be favorable to patent holders, and Korean companies often file lawsuits in the Eastern District of Texas. According to the Korea Intellectual Property Research Institute, half of the damages-based lawsuits filed by Korean companies in US district courts in 2022 were filed there.

The patents that Pegasus alleges are being infringed were originally owned by KT, and KT delegated all rights to the infringed patents to Pegasus in September 2022. Three months later, in December 2022, Pegasus contacted the three US telecom giants and began negotiations. Exactly one year after the start of negotiations, in December 2023, Pegasus sued the three US telecom giants for patent infringement.

Pegasus stated in the complaint that the lawsuit was inevitable because the KT patents infringed by the three US telecom giants are essential 5G technologies, and KT invests about $130 million (KRW 170 billion) in research and development (R&D) every year.