(Image: LEDinside)

It is not hard at all to see all exhibitors want to showcase their latest or most attractive lighting products at Light and Building 2018. However, it gets awkward when some exhibitors showcase patent-infringing products and get caught right there.

LEDinside unexpectedly witnessed that a company got caught red-handed for infringing another company’s patents and had to remove a part of their exhibits.

Chinese LED manufacturer K-lite Electric and some other Chinese firms were caught to produce LED filament bulbs that infringe patents filed by Liquileds, a Taiwanese LED filament developer. They were informed by German customs officers to remove those patent-infringing bulbs from the display stand and cross them out on the catalogues.

Barricades have been put up and tape ran from corner to corner to stop visitors from getting close to the stand. The patent-infringing LED filament bulbs were confiscated.

K-lite Electric and the other Chinese companies are said to infringe Liquileds’ patents regarding product designs and manufacturing technologies.

Liquileds is known for its proprietary flexible LED filaments and co-designs LED filament lamps for decorative lighting with its German partner SEGULA, while K-lite is an original equipment manufacturer for a renowned multinational lighting company.

Whether those companies will be given any further penalty remains unknown. Liquileds did not comment on the incident but said it will take actions to protect its inventions when it has to.

In terms of LED patents, LEDinside also notices that Nichia and Osram just declared to extend their patent cross license agreements and expand the license coverage to approximately 7,000 new patent applications. The collaboration of the two companies stresses the importance of Intellectual Property rights and conveys a message that more lighting companies will go to great length to protect their technologies.