Samsung has been sued by a former employee last month in the US over alleged patent infringement, TheElec has learned.
Former employee Kim Seung-man alleges in his suit filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Samsung and Samsung Electronics America that the companies infringed seven of his patents in the process of realizing the Smart Lock feature on their smartphones since 2015.
Smart Lock unlocks that phone when the user is in a reliable area, connected to a reliable device, or detects certain gestures.
Kim worked at Samsung’s patent team from the 1980s to the late 1990s.
Sources said he is considered a member of the first generation of the patent team the South Korean tech giant.
He had handled patent lawsuits with Japanese companies during his tenure at Samsung.
After he left the company, he moved to the US during the 2000s and registered his patents there.
Kim argues in his suit that he has over 30 years as an engineer and technology expert and claims he is the inventor of the patents in question.
He had previously filed a similar suit over patents against Samsung but had already lost that case, the sources said.
