On September 22, 2017 (CDT), Nitride Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (“Nitride”) filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota against Digi-Key Corporation d/b/a Digi-Key Electronics (“Digi-Key”), which sells UV-LED products on the internet that are manufactured by RayVio Corporation, a CA based UV-LED manufacturer (“RayVio”).

(Image: Japan International Broadcasting)

In the complaint, Nitride is seeking injunction, damages and accounting, asserting that Digi-Key infringes Nitride’s patent (US 6,861,270, “Method for Manufacturing Gallium Nitride Compound Semiconductor and Light Emitting Element”) by selling UV-LED products that are manufactured by RayVio. The patented invention significantly contributes to improvement for LED’s light emitting efficacy. Based on the same patent, on May 23, 2017 (PDT), Nitride has already filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California against RayVio.

Nitride is a pioneer in the field of UV-LED. With Professor Shiro Sakai at Tokushima University, Nitride succeeded in development of highly efficient UV-LED in 2000 for the first time in the world, and has continued to manufacture and sell UV-LED thereafter. Nitride has made a huge investment in R&D to develop and modify UV-LED, which has been quite challenging.

(Image: Japan International Broadcasting)

Nitride places its intellectual property rights as its vitally important management assets. Accordingly, Nitride will take resolute actions to against infringers in any country where appropriate and necessary to protect its patents and other intellectual property rights.