LG Smartphones Face Patent Infringement Suit in Eastern District of Texas

LG’s G3 and its other Android smartphones with one or more map apps violate a U.S. patent held by Porto Technology, a Korean company, Porto alleged in an infringement complaint filed Friday. The complaint is noteworthy for the U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas, venue in which it was filed. The Marshall court is part of the Eastern District of Texas that came under fire from CEA in February after Apple was handed a $532.9 million defeat in a jury verdict in Tyler, Texas, prompting CEA President Gary Shapiro to blast the district as “notoriously” friendly to “patent trolls” (see 1502260047). In the LG case, Porto alleges LG violated U.S. patent 6,233,518, which describes a method and system for “Providing an Image Vector-Based Traffic Information,” the complaint said. The patent was granted in May 2001 listing Heung-Soo Lee as the inventor and original assignee, though the complaint lists Ji-Soo Lee as the “owner by assignment” and says Porto is the patent’s exclusive licensee. LG didn’t comment.