Coming off of an extended battle with LG over its display technology, Samsung quietly launched a Washington, D.C.-based firm in March to support its display patents.

Samsung ended up investing $25 million in the firm, Intellectual Keystone Technology (IKT), reports the Korea Times.

As one of the world’s leading display technology companies, it makes sense for Samsung to be more proactive about protecting its intellectual property. In addition to its own devices, Samsung’s screens can be found on plenty of smartphones and tablets. The company is probably understandably paranoid as well — it recently accused LG of stealing its technology by hiring away top executives. (I’m sure Apple is having a field day with all of this.)

“Samsung recently established IKT. Patents are a good source of innovation and we also need to protect our intellectual property by strengthening our patent-related business,” said a Samsung Display spokesperson told the Korea Times.

The big goal for Samsung is to strengthen its OLED patents. IKT recently purchased LCD and OLED patents from LG, and it’s fishing around for even more display patents, an industry insider told the paper.

Photo: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat