On June, 15, 2016, in a lawsuit filed by Nichia against Tachibana Eletech (“Tachibana”) and E&E Japan (“E&E”), which companies imported and/or sold Blue LEDs manufactured by a Taiwanese company, Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd., (“Everlight”), the Tokyo District Court found that the importation/sale of those Blue LEDs by E&E and Tachibana constituted infringement of Nichia's patent.

More specifically, the Tokyo District Court found that the sale of Blue LEDs (Product Type 1254 series) manufactured by Everlight (“Everlight LEDs”) has infringed Nichia's Japanese patent No. 3972943 and ordered Tachibana and E&E to pay monetary damages caused by their infringement to Nichia. The court also considered whether the sale of Everlight LEDs infringes Nichia’s Japanese patent No. 3786114 (“114 Patent”), but, due to insufficiency of the evidence for establishing infringement, the court did not conclude that such sale constitutes infringement of the 114 patent. Nichia plans to appeal against this ruling.

Therefore, whether the sale of Everlight LEDs infringes the 114 patent will be litigated again in the Intellectual Property High Court of Japan.

Nichia seeks to protect its patents and other intellectual property rights and takes action against alleged infringements in any country when necessary.