[
THE INVESTOR]
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering has lost a patent lawsuit filed against its rivals
Hyundai Heavy Industries and
Samsung Heavy Industries, industry sources said on May 17.
According to the sources, the Supreme Court ruled in favor for HHI and Samsung Heavy by rejecting the patent suit.
The two shipyards claimed DSME’s partial reliquefaction technology is not much different from the process they have used, insisting that the patent is invalid.
But DSME has marketed the technology as its own and helped it secure LNG-carrier orders. The technology allows boil-off gas to be reliquefied to be reused as fuel on LNG carriers.
In 2014, DSME registered the technology as patentable.
Early this year, the Patent Court of Korea also ruled in favor of HHI and Samsung Heavy.
By Alex Lee and newswires (
alexlee@heraldcorp.com)