A community in the state of Florida, U.S. wants more efficient streetlights to cut energy bills, but local utility company Florida Power and Light (FPL) is making things rather difficult, reported SunSetinental.

Lawsuits, lawsuits and more lawsuits. Basically sums up Nichia’s activities this week. The leading Japanese LED chip maker announced it filed three suits in one week, two of the lawsuits were against U.S. TV manufacturer Vizio, respectively in Eastern court of Texas and Central district court of California. 

Forest Lighting (formerly branded as MLS) announced recently it had acquired 80% shares from Hong Kong lighting vendor Super Trend Lighting Chairman Jiangguo Yen (嚴建國), which is expected to bolster the Chinese player’s  LED filament bulb market share.

Nichia announced several LED patent lawsuits this week, including its two patent infringement suits filed against TV manufacturer Vizio in Eastern Court of Texas and District Court for the Central District of California in U.S., and ongoing YAG patents lawsuit against Everlight China. The lawsuit filed against Vizio stands out in particular, since it targets the end product manufacturer instead of a LED chip or component supplier.

The Zhaga Consortium, a global association of lighting companies that is standardizing LED lighting components, has published its eagerly-awaited specification on chip-on-board (COB) LED arrays. The specification, known as Zhaga Book 12, can be downloaded from the Zhaga website (//www.zhagastandard.org/books/book12).

In 2012, EVERLIGHT filed a declaratory judgment action of invalidity and non-infringement against Nichia’s U.S. Patent Nos. 5,998,925 and 7,531,960 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. These two patents are directed to YAG phosphors being used in LEDs and phosphor concentration. The jury on April 22, 2015 has found all the asserted patent claims invalid. And the court has rejected Nichia’s motions for a new trial and confirmed the jury finding on January 19, 2016. 

Bengaluru, the capital of Kanakata State in India, has distributed more than 5 million LED bulbs to local residents since it launched the energy efficiency program three months ago, reported The New Indian Express.

Dutch lighting giant Philips Lighting has started selling energy efficient LED bulbs at Palace shopping mall in Ghana capital Accra, reported Graphic Online.

Global leading LED manufacturer Nichia has filed another patent infringement lawsuit against U.S. TV manufacturer Vizio in Central California Court, just one day after filing a lawsuit in the Eastern Texas. Moreover, the Japanese company is enforcing its YAG patents in China, and filed a lawsuit against Everlight subsidiary and distributor in China earlier this month. Below are Nichia’s statements related to the cases:

A photocall on March 17, 2016 marked the start of a two-year project to replace all of the borough’s 11,300 street lamps with LED energy efficient ones.

Illuminating fishing nets is a cost-effective means of dramatically reducing the number of sea turtles getting caught and dying unnecessarily, conservation biologists at the University of Exeter have found.

Silver Spring Networks announced a new go-to-market partner, Rongwen, for its rapidly growing smart cities and smart street lighting business. Rongwen is one of the largest smart LED street light providers and operators in China, and has deployed more than 250,000 controllable LED street lights in its home country under the Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) business model. 

Veeco Instruments Inc. announced today that it sold its first Predictive Analytics solution to a major data storage customer. Incorporating Rudolph Technologies, Inc.’s (NYSE: RTEC) proven fault detection and predictive maintenance software, the new platform delivers increased Veeco system productivity for maximum efficiency resulting in reduced maintenance costs.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted Apple 59 patents including one related to AMOLED displays, reported Patently Apple.

Nichia has filed a complaint in the Eastern Court of Texas in U.S. court against American TV manufacturer Vizio for infringing its LED patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,530,250), reported Law 360 magazine.

The U.S. Department of Energy's CALiPER program has released Report 20.5, which is part of a series of investigations on LED PAR38 lamps. The new report builds on CALiPER Report 20.4 by providing a tear-down analysis of its 32 LED PAR38 lamp models and also performing additional analyses on the spectroradiometric data obtained using a specially developed automated long-term test apparatus. 

Philips Lighting, a Royal Philips company and global leader in lighting, has collaborated with The University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) to test energy efficient ways to grow food that will help feed astronauts on missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. A recent study, conducted over a nine week period, found that replacing water-cooled high-pressure sodium (HPS) systems with energy efficient LED lighting from Philips in a prototype lunar greenhouse resulted in an increased amount of high-quality, edible lettuce while dramatically improving operational efficiency and use of resources.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO) Emerging Technologies Program is seeking information from the public regarding lamps in general illumination applications.

Lighting Science, the global technology leader in human health focused LED solutions, unveils a bold new brand identity designed to more accurately communicate the mission of the company and its groundbreaking products. The brand relaunch coincides with the expansion of Lighting Science’s line of biologically-tuned LED products including the Sleepy Baby®, GoodNight™, and GoodDay™ bulbs which emit pre-sleep and awake & alert spectrums of light, respectively.

Prospects of the LED lighting market in Indonesia is promising and set to soar this year, due to growing electrification ratio in the country, reported Indonesia Investments.

Seoul Viosys filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the US Court in Florida, claiming that their UV products, including EPI, FAB, package or system, have been infringed.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) announced that ANSI Accredited Standards Committee C136 revised ANSI C136.2-2015 Dielectric Withstand and Electrical Transient Immunity Requirements. This standard covers luminaires and control devices classified for up to 600-volt operation. It is also intended for use in roadway and area lighting applications. 

Local U.S. governments have been actively replacing conventional streetlights with LEDs in an effort to slash energy consumption, according to a latest report from The Climate Group mayors across the U.S. are prioritizing LED streetlights. Below are summaries of streetlight projects in several U.S. cities.

Lumos of India launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo for its latest LED lit commute backpack, Aster, especially designed for cyclists. The campaign has secured US $18,492 or 34% of US $50,000.   With so many LED gadgets for cyclists on the market, what makes Aster stand out from others?   Aster is a weather-resistant backpack that increases cyclists’ on-road safety. The backpack accommodates 16 LED rear lights and 30 LED brake lights along with two profiles light and two front lights that enable the cyclist to be seen from different di...

If you have been following LEDinside news, India has been a booming market for massive streetlight retrofit projects over the last two years. Progress of LED streetlight projects in the region have been mixed, with some states and municipalities successfully implementing plans, and others lagging behind due to political, financial or technical difficulties. 

This recall involves GE Lighting high intensity discharge (HID) LED lamps. The lamps are used in lighting fixtures for warehouses, schools and gymnasiums. The lamps are 5 1/2 inches in diameter by 11 1/2 inches long and weigh about 3 pounds. The lamps were sold in a blue and white carton with “ED37/EX39 base” on the front and “PC:21259” on the back above the bar code. 

As previously announced, Bang & Olufsen a/s ("Bang & Olufsen") initiated a review to identify strategic and structural options to increase scale and further reduce complexity within Bang & Olufsen.

The UAE’s largest telecommunication company Du announced it is testing LED-based Li-Fi or Visible Communication Technology (VLC) capable of transferring data at 1 gigabyte per second, reported The National.

With the industry’s biggest biennial lighting event, Light+Building 2016 running for the whole week at Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Center in Germany, the show hosted by Messe Frankfurt has resulted in a deluge of new lighting product releases. To make things easier for readers, and those who were unable to attend the show, we’ll pick a few highlights.

Heliospectra, a world leader in intelligent lighting technology for crop cultivation and plant research, have together with Gothenburg University and biotech companies CropTailor and OlsAro, successfully grown cereals (oat and barley) in a controlled environment under sole source LED lighting. The report entitled “Growth and development of cereals in a controlled environment with sole source LED lighting” demonstrate the potential to cultivate staple foods in a closed environment anywhere in the world.