Last year, vacuum maker Dyson sued Samsung for patent infringement in the United Kingdom, where Dyson is based. Dyson lawyers argued that Samsung's MotionSync vacuums infringed Dyson patents related to the company's own vacuum technology.

But Dyson gave up the legal effort in fairly short order. The cause of this courtroom failure isn't clear, and the company told Wired UK it was forced to withdraw due to "loopholes in the patent system."

Samsung, apparently still quite displeased about being sued over patents in Dyson's home court, wasn't satisfied with that.

"The most unproductive innovation is patent litigation," said Samsung co-CEO Yoon Boo-keun in November, shortly after the suit was withdrawn.

The company has plans to rake Dyson over the coals on its home turf. Samsung filed a claim in South Korean court asking that Dyson should pay 10 billion won ($9.43 million) because the vacuum patent lawsuit "hurt Samsung's corporate image."

The counter-attack, reported this weekend in the Korea Times, included statements by an unnamed Samsung executive disparaging Dyson.

“Samsung’s marketing activities were negatively affected by Dyson’s groundless litigation, which is intolerable," said the executive. "Samsung is going to take a hard-line stance against patent trolls that use litigations as a marketing tool."

Samsung execs believe Dyson portrayed the company as a "repeat patent violator or copycat," the Korea Times wrote.

Of course, Dyson certainly isn't a "troll" in the classic sense: it has products which it sells internationally. And it's Dyson's widespread business lines, in fact, that enable Samsung to make a legal counter-attack on its home court. The company would have no such recourse against the kind of low-asset LLCs that are typical US patent trolls.

The lawsuit won't help Samsung a bit in the dozens of patent troll lawsuits it defends against every year in the US. Rather, it's a reminder to Samsung's actual business competitors: if you want to spark patent battles, we've got options too.

Dyson responded in a statement to The Guardian: