Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., a major shipyard here, lost a lawsuit filed against its rivals that contested the shipyard’s patent on reliquefaction technology, industry sources said Wednesday.

According to the sources, the Supreme Court ruled in favor for Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. by rejecting the patent suit.

The two shipyards claimed Daewoo Shipbuilding’s partial reliquefaction technology is not much different from the process they have used, insisting that the patent is invalid.

But Daewoo Shipbuilding 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, Daewoo Shipbuilding registered the technology as patentable.

Early this year, the Patent Court of Korea also ruled in favor of Hyundai Heavy and Samsung Heavy.

Source: Yonhap