Seoul Central District Court has ordered Samsung to pay a former employee W6 billion ($5, 54, 0424) in compensation for patented technologies he invented while working for Samsung. The former worker, identified by his surname Chung began working for Samsung in 1991 as a chief researcher. He worked there until 1995 and developed image-compression technologies for high-definition TVs. His inventions led to 10 local patents and 28 overseas patents, while an additional 17 patents in the U.S. and two in Hong Kong were added based on Chung’s inventions since he left Samsung. Those patented technologies eventually became global standards that other companies must pay a fee to use.
Samsung made W62.56 billion in profit from 2000 to 2007 from Chung’s patents, the court said. He sued Samsung in April of 2010 saying he deserved a larger compensation than he had been given. But Samsung refused, claiming Chung relinquished his rights to the patents by accepting W220 million in compensation in two payments in 1999 and 2002. That results in W6 billion or 10 percent of the W62.5 billion profit minus the W220 million Chung has already received.
