Samsung has filed a lawsuit demanding $9.4 million 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.
Last year, vacuum maker Dyson sued Samsung for patent infringement in the United Kingdom, where Dyson is based. Dyson lawyers argued that Samsung’s MotionSync vacuums infringed Dyson patents related to the company’s own vacuum technology. But Dyson gave up the legal effort in fairly short order. The cause of this courtroom failure isn’t clear, and the company told Wired UK it was forced to withdraw due to “loopholes in the patent system.” Samsung, apparently still quite displeased about being sued over patents in Dyson’s home court, wasn’t satisfied with that. “The most unproductive innovation is patent litigation,” said Samsung co-CEO Yoon Boo-keun in November, shortly after the suit was withdrawn.
