In a Northern District of California complaint, LS Cable & System Ltd. has sued Apple (3:24-cv-09194) over the incorporation of wireless charging chips that support the Qi standard—including those manufactured by Broadcom—in its various devices (e.g., smartphones, smartwatches, and wireless earphones). A single patent generally related to a contactless chargeable battery is in suit; while the plaintiff pleads that it sent Apple a notice letter as early as March 2019, it alleges willful infringement as of September 2023, when a reexamination certificate issued for the sole asserted patent.
The asserted 8,013,568 patent originally issued in September 2011 to the plaintiff, a subsidiary of LS Corporation. Pursuant to the applicant-requested ex parte reexam, claim 2 of the patent was canceled, the rest of the existing claims were amended directly (or depend from an amended claim), and new claims 25-58 were added (and determined to be patentable). Comprising a family of one in the US, the patent has estimated priority date in July 2005.
In its complaint, LS Cable pleads that it "was established in 1962 and has been contributing to building power grids and communication networks first in the Republic of Korea, and more recently in countries all over the world" and that "[i]n the mid-2000s, LS Cable embarked on a wireless power transfer project that led to a number of pioneering developments and a large international patent portfolio". The plaintiff characterizes the '568 patent as "one of the core patents in [its] wireless power portfolio".
K&L Gates LLP filed the case for LS Cable, which identified only LS Corporation (characterized as "own[ing] a controlling interest of [LS Cable's] stock") as a nonparty with a known (non)financial interest in the outcome of the suit. District Judge Peter H. Kang has been assigned to preside. 12/19, Northern District of California.
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