AT&T and Samsung slapped with patent lawsuit

The second biggest liquid crystal display (LCD) manufacturer in Taiwan has sued Dallas-based AT&T Inc. (T) and South Korean-based Samsung Electronics Co. (SSNLF) alleging patent infringement.
AU Optronics Corp. (AUO) alleges that AT&T and Samsung disregarded intellectual property rights in flat panel display product lines concerning cell phone devices and flat panel televisions. The suit was filed in Wilmington, Del., and adds to what has become a series of suits between Samsung and AT&T.
Samsung representatives are calling AU’s claims “groundless” while a representative for AT&T declined comment. The suit from AU comes as a response to a suit filed by Samsung almost a month ago that alleges similar allegations but attributes them to the Taiwanese company.
Last week, Apple Inc. (AAPL) Apple amended a patent complaint with an extra 14 products alleging that Samsung copied, including the design of new releases of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy S II. Samsung fought back with a patent infringement complaint of its own against Apple.
Samsung Austin Semiconductor LLP is Samsung’s only semiconductor manufacturing facility operating outside of South Korea with an Austin workforce of about 2,000 employees after the recent construction and addition of  a new unit completed in June. None of the suits will affect Samsung’s expansion in the Austin area.
As a chip-maker, Samsung Electronics Co. is Asia’s largest producer of semiconductors. The company, which first opened a plant in north Austin in 1997, built a second one in 2007 and announced in May 2010 that an additional $3.6 billion would be invested for the most recent expansion of its 12-inch semiconductor fabrication plant. This brings the total invested by Samsung in its Austin plant to more than $9 billion. According to the company, this makes it by far the largest foreign investment in Texas and one of the largest single foreign investments in the United States.
The major investment will be used to manufacture large scale integration chips, or LSI chips, in a move that more than doubled spending to about $8.7 billion on Samsung’s international semiconductor business for 2010 and is designed to meet demand for chip use in smart phones, cameras and appliances. LSI is the process of placing a large number of circuits on a small chip, and is currently in high-demand to produce advanced logic devices. Currently, the plant produces NAND Flash memory chips with production slated to continue.
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