LG Says Samsung May Infringe Eye-Tracking Patents

LG thinks Samsung may be infringing a few of its patents with Smart Pause and other eye-tracking features of the Galaxy S4.

Yonhap News, a Korean news publication, says that LG will look into the Galaxy S4 to see if Smart Pause infringes patents LG owns. LG’s upcoming Optimus G Pro has a similar feature that LG calls Smart Video. LG patented its Smart Video feature back in 2009. LG also has other patents for eye-tracking features dating back to 2005.

For its part, Samsung says it has its own method of eye-tracking that does not infringe on LG’s patents. The company is certain that LG won’t find anything infringing in its examination of the Galaxy S4.

Both the LG Optimus G Pro and Samsung Galaxy S4 will come to market in April. The LG Optimus Pro may come to the U.S. sometime in Q2 2013, though LG hasn’t announced anything about a U.S. release yet.

If LG does find evidence that Samsung infringed its patents it will likely sue the company. Neither company filed suits over eye-tracking patents yet, however, so for now it’s just talk back and forth.

This back and forth has far more implications than competing Times Square billboards, however.

In recent years LG and Samsung introduced very similar products or features at around the same time. Recent LG phones have features similar to Samsung’s S Note and S Voice apps with Quick Memo and Q Voice, respectively. The two companies compete in other areas as well.

At CES 2012 both companies debuted 55-inch OLED TVs, though neither was ready to ship the devices at the time. LG finally beat Samsung to market with the giant HDTV late last year.

This year at CES LG and Samsung both introduced curved OLED TVs. Samsung introduced its display first, though LG introduced its display as the “world’s first” curved panel just a few hours later.