Epistar's LED filament bulbs (Image: LEDinside)

On May 7, 2018, Epistar Corporation filed a patent infringement lawsuit against V-TAC USA Corp. (“V-TAC”) in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on May 7, 2018. The complaint asserts that V-TAC’s LED filament bulbs infringe seven Epistar patents and seeks injunctive relief to halt further sale of the infringing products.

Innovation is at the heart of Epistar’s business, and the protection of Epistar’s investment in its research and development efforts is of the utmost importance to Epistar as well as its partners and customers.  To date, Epistar has invested over millions of dollars in the research and development of cutting-edge LED technologies resulting in over 4000 issued patents and pending patent applications. Epistar’s intellectual property has laid the foundation for LED filament (bulb) and/or LED bulb technologies, empowering state-of-the-art products for ever-growing consumers worldwide.  As of May 8, 2018, Epistar’s licensees include Supertrend, QLS, and Kaistar, whose LED filament bulb are licensed.

Epistar’s complaint alleges that the V-TAC’s LED filament bulbs such as the VT-5115D Light Bulbs (P/N: 215), VT-5100D Light Bulbs (P/N: 200) and VT-5133 Light Bulbs (P/N: 283) infringe one or more claims of Epistar’s U.S. Patent Numbers 6,346,771, titled “High Power LED Lamp,” 7,489,068, titled “Light Emitting Device,” 7,560,738, titled “Light-Emitting Diode Array Having An Adhesive Layer,” 8,240,881, titled “Light Emitting Device Package,” 9,065,022, titled, “Light Emitting Apparatus,” 9,488,321, titled “Illumination Device With Inclined Light Emitting Element Disposed On A Transparent Substrate,” and 9,664,340, titled “Light Emitting Device.”