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

ClearLight Technology®, a division of American Machine Vision LLC announces its US $60,000 in 60 days Kickstarter campaign to fund the certification and final engineering of their low-power, low heat, energy efficient LED retrofit module for fluorescent tube fixtures.

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.

Another UAE emirate Ras Al Khaimah announced it will be rolling out a major streetlight replacement project along major roads to the airport, public parks and others, reported Khaleej Times.

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.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released CALiPER Report 24: Photometric Testing, Laboratory Teardowns, and Accelerated Lifetime Testing of OLED Luminaires, which is the first CALiPER report evaluating the performance of OLED luminaires based on independent procurement and testing. Among the findings:

At LEDforum 2016 hosted by LEDinside in late September in Taipei, Taiwan, industry insiders were all focused on innovative technologies including Quantum Dot (QD), Micro-LEDs and other new technologies. Saturation in the LED backlight market, while the LED lighting market might have high market potential, but requires specialization has ushered development of new applications in the LED industry. Some of these include small-pitch LED displays for billboards, large indoor displays, automotive LEDs, non-visible LED light (UV and IR applications), grow lights and other important emerging applications. Future technology developments include integrating QD technology with micro-LEDs to optimize LED performance.

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.

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.

Erik Lief a leading writer for American Council of Health (ACH) writes an analyses on earlier reports by American Medical Association..

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.

Quantel Laser announced the opening of a new service center in China at the offices of their long-time partner, Titan Electro-Optics (TEO). The service center, inaugurated at a gala grand-opening ceremony in Beijing on October 24, 2016, will provide local service to all Quantel customers in China. Local service will be available at the company’s Beijing headquarters as well as in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Xicato announces it is now shipping XIM Gen4, its 4th generation intelligent module that integrates Bluetooth Low Energy wireless communication, beacon capability and fully featured light control with the industry's tightest specification light source.

Indian government’s energy efficiency program is in place for Bengaluru. LED tube lights will be distributed at subsidized prices, reported Times of India.

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.

Lextar Electronics, the vertically integrated LED maker in Taiwan, is setting the trend with human-centric lighting, a combination of LED lighting fixtures with a control system that can simulate day and night to change the color temperature of the light. At the same time, the company also launched “Solar White”, its latest LED light quality upgrade technology capable of generating an LED light source similar to natural sunlight. Lextar will attend the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Autumn Edition) from 27-30 October 2016, where it will once again publicly display its concept of human-centric lighting in the form its ALLUXIA flat panel lights.  ALLUXIA has won the German Design Award and the Red Dot design award 2016.

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.

Philips Lighting, a global leader in lighting, announced a state-of-the-art connected LED lighting system to be unveiled on the Big River Crossing as the finale of its grand opening celebration on October 22, 2016.