US courts recorded 18 semiconductor patent lawsuits involving South Korean companies between January and July this year, already surpassing the previous annual record since the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Agency began compiling statistics in 2012. In 2024 the agency counted 10 cases; last year, 8. This is also the first time semiconductor-specific figures have been separated from the broader pool of US patent suits involving Korean companies.

The data points to a sharply escalating legal environment around Korea's two memory giants. Korean companies were defendants in 9 cases through July — another all-time high, up from 6 in each of 2024 and 2025. Korean firms also filed 9 suits of their own, matching the annual record set in 2022. With five months of the year remaining, total litigation is expected to surpass 20 cases.

Who is filing the lawsuits?

Non-practicing entities drive most of the offensive. Of the 24 US semiconductor suits against Korean companies from 2022 through July this year, NPEs filed 17 — 70.8%. This year the share is higher still: 7 of 9 cases, or 77.8%.

NPEs acquire patents without manufacturing anything and monetize them through litigation, pursuing settlements, damages and royalties. Their preferred targets are companies with deep pockets — and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK Hynix (000660.KS) are both projected to post record operating profits in the current memory supercycle.

The claims reach into core memory process technology:

• SK Hynix was sued in May in the US over high bandwidth memory (HBM), with the plaintiff — NPE Monolithic 3D — alleging unauthorized use of 3D vertical stacking structures and transistor arrangements. The same entity sued SK Hynix in February.
• Samsung Electronics was sued in June by NPE Mare Infinitus over HBM-related patents.
• Both cases involve 3D stacking and through-silicon via (TSV) technology — techniques also used in NAND flash, raising the prospect that disputes spread beyond HBM.

Mid-sized players are exposed too. Taiwan's Everlight Electronics sued Seoul Semiconductor (046890.KS) in a US court in February, the first semiconductor-patent suit against the Korean LED maker. Everlight relied not on in-house technology but on patents it had previously acquired from other companies.

Why is defense so difficult?

US policy has shifted in plaintiffs' favor. Since Donald Trump took office, the administration has strengthened protection of American patent holders. The US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected inter partes review (IPR) petitions more frequently — IPR being a key defensive tool for infringement defendants. US-based NPEs have responded with more aggressive filing activity.

Korean companies also face a structural asymmetry in court. In manufacturer-versus-manufacturer disputes, a company can counter-sue with its own patent portfolio. NPEs make no products, so counterclaims are useless against them. Industry sources say defendants often settle regardless of actual infringement, weighing litigation costs and reputational damage.

Kim Yong-sun, head of the intellectual property division at the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Agency, said: "As semiconductors account for a growing share of South Korea's industrial base, there is a noticeable trend of overseas NPEs increasingly initiating semiconductor-related patent disputes."

Are Korean firms fighting back?

Yes — and in a new way. Korean entities filed 9 US semiconductor suits this year, and a significant portion came from Korea-based NPEs that acquire patents from small and medium-sized enterprises or research institutions and assert them against foreign companies. That reverses the historical pattern of one-way traffic from overseas NPEs toward Korean defendants.

Sung Yun-mo, operating committee chairman of the Intellectual Property Strategy Forum and former Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, said South Korea lags the US in this regard: "In the United States, federal government policies supporting legitimate patent enforcement and state government policies curbing frivolous patent litigation have developed in parallel." He added, "The government and the private sector must work together to develop new institutional frameworks."

Could this disrupt chip exports?

The industry's biggest worry is the US International Trade Commission. Some cases are proceeding through the ITC, which can issue exclusion orders barring infringing products from US import and distribution. A disruption of Korean semiconductor exports to the US, depending on ITC rulings, cannot be ruled out.

Roh Jae-il, chairman of the Korea Intellectual Property Management Association, said: "An ITC import exclusion order could shake the entire semiconductor supply chain of South Korea's industry. It is time to treat semiconductor patent disputes as a strategic industrial trade issue."

With NPE filings running at roughly one per month, both suits against and by Korean companies on track to exceed double digits, and HBM and TSV patents at the center of the disputes, patent litigation is becoming a recurring cost line — and a potential trade weapon — for the Korean memory industry.