With the development of LEDs, more and more manufactories started to emphasize their own technical patents, which also bring some patents competition and cooperation.
Nichia Corp had filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany at the District Court Düsseldorf against Taiwan LED manufacturer Harvatek Corp, and later several German distributors of Harvatek were also accused by Nichia, which were thought to infringe Nichia’s two different white LEDs patents.
Similarly, Cree has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Delaware District Court against several US-based LED makers.
Differently, in order to avoid patent problems, some company took steps to share patent with agreements. Take Intematix and Tridonic for example, US phosphor manufacturer Intematix had signed a patent cross-license agreement relating to silicate-based phosphor materials for LEDs. The agreement was signed with four companies – Tridonic, Toyoda Gosei, Leuchtstoffwerk Breitungen and Litec GbR.
Recently, LED lamp maker Lemnis Lighting had joined Philips’ licensing program for solid-state lighting. Through that, Lemnis could share Philips’ large portfolio of patents related to LED systems and controls, while Philips had share Lemnis’ LED-lamp architecture and control patents.
In additional to this, LED Company started to protect its own patens. A fewer days before, US-based LED maker Luminus Devices was awarded its 50th patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) covering “big-chip” LED technology and related devices, also, the company had been granted 13 non-US patents in China, Korea and Taiwan.
