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.

On Oct. 18, 2016, Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against HTC NIPPON, a Japanese affiliate of Taiwanese HTC (“HTC”), and Kanematsu Communications, a distributor of HTC NIPPON, seeking an injunction and compensation for damages.

Micro-LEDs, why do we love you so much, when commercialization will take another five to ten years? Despite the long incubation period ahead before micro-LED screens can reach mass production stage, Facebook’s VR subsidiary Oculus announced it absorbed Irish micro-LED company InfiniLED. The strategy seems eerily familiar with the one launched by Apple years back in 2013, when it took Luxvue under its wing, so Oculus and its parent company Facebook are potentially eyeing micro-LEDs for its next generation VR headsets.

LED gel clings can separate and expose the inner decal and LED/button battery compartment, posing choking and button battery ingestion hazards to children.

Chinese investors are not the only ones showing interest in purchasing Siemen’s 17% stake in Osram, according to a latest report from German business magazine Manager Magazin.

Philips Lighting reports sales at EUR 1.7 billion, continued profitability increase led by gross margin improvement; solid cash flow

Philips Lighting, a global leader in lighting, announced that it had signed up its 700th member for its EnabLED Licensing Program for LED luminaires and retrofit bulbs and that 100 new members have joined in the last nine months. The program, which gives companies a license and support to use its patented innovations, saw a 36% growth in member companies from Asia in the same period. 

Global LED manufacturers are starting to develop micro-LED but there are still many bottlenecks to overcome before it can enter mass production, and most industry experts agree it might take another five to 10 years before it can be commercialized.

Taiwanese LED manufacturer Lite-On reported double digit growth for third quarter of 2016, reported Money DJ.

Samsung Electronics scrapped its flagship Galaxy Note 7 after a series of explosion incidents caused by faulty batteries that has dented its brand reputation. Industry insiders estimate the Korean electronic conglemorate might raise DRAM, AMOLED and other component prices to compensate losses incurred from the Note 7 incidents.

Canadian city Kelowna located inthe south of Canada’s British Columbia province launched a pilot LED streetlight project that could help the city save millions of dollars and cut costs, reported CBC News.

More and more of us are switching to LED bulbs in our homes – now a Queensland research team led by QUT scientists wants Australia’s street lights to be switched over to LEDs.