Philips Lighting, a global leader in lighting, and Xiaomi, the mobile internet company, today signed a joint venture agreement for smart home lighting in China. The companies have joined forces to design and develop connected LED luminaires and lamps for Xiaomi’s wireless smart home platform, including apps for controlling the lights both via Android and IoS-based smartphones. 

GE Lighting Solutions and Samsung Electronics announced the signing of a worldwide patent license agreement. 

In 2016, Epistar lead the Taiwan LED industry business model transition from unprofitable product portfolio to refocusing on more profitable client orders. Other LED companies have caught onto this trend, such as Unity Opto, which slashed LED bulb production capacity by 70%, reported China Times.

With effect from  1 November 2016, Guido van Tartwijk has become the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tridonic, a company belonging to the Zumtobel Group. He succeeds Alfred Felder, who has been appointed to the Group’s Management Board back in April this year. 

After numerous LED manufacturers forecasted their future earnings, Chinese LED enterprises finally released their financial results for 3Q16. For those with irrational fear that the LED industry is still in the phase of “increasing revenues but stagnant profits,” LEDinside has collected third quarter earnings from 32 LED companies for further evaluation of the credibility of market claims about current development.

Osram recently announced the latest developments about the acquisition transaction of its LED general lighting business sales to a Chinese investment  consortium headed by IDG Capital.

Plummeting LED lighting prices and net profits in the LED industry, has allowed LED filaments to emerge as the black horse in the market, placing it under the market spotlight. LED filaments were formerly plagued with manufacturing technology and yield rate issues, and in the past few years Epistar’s patent suits has placed LED filaments under the lime light again.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) has announced an opportunity that may be of interest to the solid-state lighting community. The LPO invests in the power of American innovation to accelerate the deployment of innovative clean-energy projects across the U.S. in order to avoid, reduce, or sequester greenhouse gases. To date, it has supported a large, diverse portfolio of more than US $30 billion in loans, loan guarantees, and commitments that have covered more than 30 projects nationwide, generating over US $50 billion in total project investment, supporting job creation, cutting pollution, and enhancing American competitiveness in the global economy.

Materials manufacturer Covestro continued its successful half-year trend in the third quarter of 2016 with high Free Operating Cash Flow and strong earnings. Adjusted EBITDA rose significantly by 21.9% year-on-year to EUR 574 million, mainly driven by higher volumes combined with higher margins. The Group’s core volumes (in kilotons) were up by 9.1% on the prior-year period.

Company continues to provide high efficiency LED lighting solutions to reduce operating costs and improve light quality within public schools; has completed more than US $13.3 million in education work throughout 2016

China Electric or better known for its lighting brand Toa Lighting in Taiwan issued a statement on Oct. 31, 2016 rebutting Taiwanese media reports about ongoing company financial investigations were exaggerated and fabricated.

Sharp President Tai Jeng-wu confirmed last Saturday market rumors that Cupertino-based Apple will be adapting OLED screens in its next generation iPhones, reported Nikkei Asian review.

U.S. OLED manufacturer Universal Display Corporation’s office in Ireland reported a US $21 million loss in 2015 on revenue of US $98.2 million, reported Irish media Independent recently.

Blackbird Technologies (//www.blackbird-tech.com), a company dedicated to helping independent inventors and small companies realize value from their patents, has settled a patent infringement lawsuit with Kobi Electric and filed new cases concerning LED bulbs.

Philips Lighting, a global leader in lighting,announced that it signed a patent license agreement with GVA Lighting Inc., a designer and manufacturer of LED lighting systems for architectural and commercial markets. The license provides GVA Lighting with full, worldwide access to a wide range of basic LED control, color-mixing, and system-level technologies.

CAO Lighting filed a patent infringement suit against Light Efficient Design, LLC and its distributor EWS in Federal Court in Boise, Idaho, for infringement of its U.S. Patent No. 6,465,961 on Oct. 28, 2016.

Enel has connected an 88 MW wind farm to the grid in Nojoli, South Africa, and launched a rural electrification project with Liter of Light, to bring sustainable light to the streets of its surrounding villages.

There is increasing German government interference in LED and semiconductor related transactions this week, Osram’s decision to sell its general lighting business to Chinese consortium headed by IDG Capital and included lighting company Forest Lighting (MLS) has been delayed and put on hold.

The German government has temporarily halted Chinese consortium headed by strategic investor IDG Capital Partners (IDG) to acquire Osram’s general lighting business LEDVANCE, and have put the deal under review, Reuters cited German magazine WirtschaftsWoche recent report.

Epistar announced that it agreed to settle its patent litigation against Adamax d/b/a Newhouse Lighting (“Adamax”) pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, for infringement of Epistar’s light-emitting diode (“LED”) filament patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,346,771, 7,489,068, 7,560,738, 8,240,881, 8,344,353, 8,791,467, 9,065,022). 

On Oct. 27, 2016, Liquidleds Lighting (Liquileds) filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Testrite, a Taiwan-based distributor which sells products through its retail channels like TLW, HOLA, HOLA CASA and HOLA Petite. The lawsuit alleges that Testrite infringed on Liquidleds' patent for "Method of Assembling an Airtight LED Light Bulb." (Taiwan Patent No. 1372842, which has foreign corresponding fillings in China, US, EP and Japan)

U.S. intelligence services warned Germany that a Chinese takeover of German semiconductor manufacturing equipment maker Aixtron could give Beijing access to technology for military purposes, reported German paper Handelsblatt on Wednesday.

Foxconn, a long term Apple partner, might have lost its bid to assemble the glass backs in iPhone 8, as reports from Nikkei Asian Review point out Chinese sapphire manufacturers will be the major suppliers.

West Kelowna, a Canadian City will be converting 1,750 high pressure sodium streetlights to LEDs, reported Kelowna Capital News.

EPISTAR announced it signed a license agreement with Super Trend Lighting (Group) Ltd. (“SUPERTREND”) to use Epistar’s filament patents in its products. Epistar holds key intellectual property regarding the LED filament technology used in making LED filament bulbs. The LED filament patents relate to, among other things, LED filament structure(s), and light-emitting product(s) using LED filament(s). This patent portfolio covers Taiwan, China, United States, Europe and other territories.

Kateeva, the OLED production equipment leader, announced the appointment of Mark Shaw, Ph.D. as Senior Vice President of Human Resources (HR). Previously, Shaw worked at Lam Research and Applied Materials. He joins Kateeva at a time of rapid growth. He’ll build a comprehensive HR infrastructure to support the company’s accelerating global business, with strategic initiatives to attract, inspire and reward top talent, world-wide.

Acuity Brands announced Peter Y. Ngai, Vice President-Technology, has received the Illuminating Engineering Society’s (IES) MEDAL in recognition of meritorious technical achievement for furthering the profession, art or knowledge of illuminating engineering. Ngai was honored during the IES 2016 National Convention held October 23-25 in Orlando, Florida, U.S..

The City of Henderson in partnership with McKinstry, a design-build company specializing in energy-based retrofits, will replace more than 6,200 light fixtures across the city with energy-saving LEDs that will pay for themselves in just over seven years.

Chinese LED manufacturers have been very active in international acquisitions in recent years. One of the most successful representatives in the LED lighting industry this year has been Forest Lighting (MLS) and a consortium of Chinese investors acquired Osram’s general lighting business LEDVANCE. Other Chinese investors also showed interest in absorbing the company recently, with market rumors about San’an Opto’s acquisition of Osram spreading like wildfire recently.

Sharp might be shutting down its LED display plant in Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan in 2017, as part of its restructuring efforts implemented by parent company Foxconn, sources familiar with the matter told Japan Times recently.