BU also suing LG, HP for patent infringement

After announcing they would sue tech giant Apple, Inc. earlier this summer, Boston University officials have decided to sue LG Electronics, Inc., and Hewlett-Packard Company for patent infringement, officials said.

BU spokesman Colin Riley confirmed the Board of Trustees filed two separate complaints against HP and LG on Thursday. The complaints allege that the corporations illegally made use of a 1997 patent for insulating films created by BU electrical and computer engineering professor Theodore D. Moustakas, who was named BU’s 2013 Innovator of the Year in July.

In June, BU sued Apple and several other smaller technology companies over infringement of the same patent, referred to as “783 patent” in the complaints.

“Boston University has filed patent infringement complaints against a number of prominent technology firms in recent months related to this patented technology,” BU officials said in a statement provided to The Daily Free Press. “In this case, HP and LG have neglected to license our patent and, therefore, infringed on our intellectual property rights.”

Products offered for sale by HP and LG infringe on one or more claims of Moustakas’s U.S. Patent No. 5,686,738, or “Highly Insulating Monocrystalline Gallium Nitride Thin Films,” according to the complaints.

The complaints identified the infringing products as the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook, HP Slate 7 tablet and HP Pavilion 20xi IPS, as well as components of the LG LED Lamp and LG LED High Power products.

Three of Apple’s most popular products, the iPhone 5, iPad and MacBook Air, are also allegedly being sold in violation of the 1997 patent, according to BU’s complaint.

“Over a decade ago, Boston University developed and patented technology that is now widely used in products that include blue LEDs,” BU officials said. “As exclusive owner of that patented technology, only Boston University and those who have licensed our patent can make, use, or sell products containing that technology.”