Several tragedies struck the industry this week. Renowned architect Dame Zaha Hadid, known for her bold modern building designs unfortunately passed away at the age of 65 from a sudden heart attack on April 1, 2016. Sadly, this is no April Fools prank. Hadid’s design firm confirmed that the architect died in Florida, U.S.

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. 

It has been done. A group of British researchers have succeeded in growing laser on silicon substrates, which could pave the way to economic super computers in the future. If this technology leaves the lab, it could overturn the lighting industry.

Toshiba Lighting has finally made some progress in selling its less profitable Chinese production line to appliance manufacturer Konka Group. The company is withdrawing from the Chinese consumer lighting market, and plans to move operations back to Japan.

There has been quite some activity in the Middle East and African lighting markets lately. One of Middle East’s largest LED installation projects has been rolled out by Dubai this week, and under the government project 160,000 LED light bulbs will be installed in 2,000 new houses. In Africa, the Zambian government’s decision to phase out incandescent bulbs has encouraged local LED manufacturer The Zambia Electrometer to scale up annual LED bulb production by four times to 2 million LED bulbs.

GE announced it will no longer be manufacturing CFL lights in the U.S. market, and will be embracing LED lights in the future. ENERGY STAR’s raised energy efficiency standards, which has left CFLs in the dust, was cited as the main cause behind the shift. Other points mentioned in the company’s press release also hinted to its increased focus and strategy in smart lights.

The LED industry was embroiled in its own storm of legal disputes, as blizzards engulfed certain parts of the Northern hemisphere this week. Nichia clinches a hard won victory against Everlight in the Eastern District of Texas this week, the court uphold its claim that Everlight had infringed its 250 patent. However, Everlight was able to bag a win in an earlier Michigan court ruling that has invalidated two of Nichia’s key YAG patents.

A MIT research has caught on like wild-fire in the industry this week, since it holds the potential of reviving the nearly phased-out incandescent bulbs. The research claims that by using nano optic crystal structures, they were able to raise incandescent luminous efficiency to 6% and holds the potential of reaching 40% rivaling LEDs. However, there was a slight glitch in the press release. The cited luminous efficiency data was a bit outdated, most likely traced to 2013 results. Thanks to a reader from Epistar, who pointed us into the right direction

A lot of new products and electronic gadgets have been released on the market following the start of CES 2016. One of the interesting trends observed from the latest product releases has been the growing usage of OLED backlight products in laptops and displays, LG Display, Samsung, and Dell have been a couple to release OLED-screen devices.

During the Christmas season this year, the Japanese government announced plans of raising LED lighting market penetration as part of its global warming prevention strategies. Siemens announced shortly before the holidays that it had not known about Osram’s plan to invest in white LED chip manufacturing, and was unsupportive of the decision. In the automotive lighting sector, Audi expanded its advanced lighting options. LEDinside has also projected the car lighting market will reach US $2.29 billion by 2020. For further details about industry developments this week please see below.

There has been a lot of activity going on in the UV LED market in the last two weeks, Japanese media Nikkei reports have pointed out UV LED manufacturer Nikkiso is collaborating with Formosa Plastics Group to build the world’s largest UV LED factory in Taiwan. Dow Chemical and DuPont’s equal merge last week, implies advantages in LED material and UV LED development, but could also raise the bar considerably for other material manufacturers to break through their comprehensive patent networks. Apple is once again under the spotlight, following a Bloomberg report that revealed the company has set up a secret lab in Taiwan to work on iPad or iPhone display technology.

MLS and Epistar share their outlook for 2016 and their current market strategies with LEDinside in recent interviews. The influence of COP21 meeting in Paris, France has raised governments and manufacturers awareness onto certain issues. Seoul Viosys announces its UV LEDs are close to 100% capable of eliminating hepatitis C virus.

LEDinside projections of the LED market outlook in 2016 are published below for UVC LED market, and other niche market applications.India LED bulb prices might be marked down INR 20 further. A couple of business deals to follow recently, Tridonic sells its signage business to AgiLight, while Philips adds Ledra to its lineup of LED bulb patent licensees.

Nichia revealed some of its future product plans for 2016 at a recent press conference held in Taipei, Taiwan. The Japanese company is still very focused on LED chip R&D, and plans to invest resources into niche lighting markets including UV LED and laser next year.

Highlights this week: The India market’s demands for star labelled efficient products has doubled with falling prices and increased participation of private companies, as the country follows its commitment to lower carbon footprint ahead of climate change talks to take place in Paris later this month. Following Osram’s announcement last week that the company is to invest EUR 1 billion in a new Malaysia-based plant for LED chips, a leading investor in Osram expressed opposing opinions about Osram’s latest strategy. LEDinside’s analysts initial estimates that about 30% of the EUR 1 billion investment will go into constructing the factory, and probably 30% in chip processing while Osram might be investing around EUR 400 million in MOCVD equipment. ON Semiconductor and Fairchild Semiconductor announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for ON Semiconductor to acquire Fairchild for in an all cash transaction valued at approximately US $2.4 billion.

Osram was under the media lime light this week following Chinese manufacturer MLS announcement of its intention to take part in bidding for its luminaire business. Chinese financial institutes estimate the business will sell for around EUR 720 million. The company also rocked the industry’s boat by announcing it is scaling up its R&D investments.

For every man that dreamed of becoming James Bond and launching a career in espionage, it might not be as easy as thought. A commercial spy group comprising mostly of Win Semiconductor engineers were caught by Taiwanese authorities from stealing sensitive trade secrets. The group led by a Taiwanese engineer working for a Chinese semiconductor company was very close to smuggling Win Semiconductor’s guarded secrets back to his employer. For more please see below:

U.S. regulators “scared” the LED industry this week, by halting Lumileds sell to Go Scale Capital. The deal has been put on hold by Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) over unstated concerns. Lumileds representatives, however, assured the public that the deal is still in progress and will be sealed by next quarter or first quarter of 2016 latest.

There has been a lot of LED streetlight upgrade projects rolled out in the North America market this week, most are concentrated in the U.S. market, with only one lighting case in the Canadian market. Unlike most countries where governments fund the streetlighting project, energy utilities company Xcel Energy is financing large scale streetlight conversion projects in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Tata Power and Osram India have formed a LED joint initiative in Mumbai to lower LED tube prices to US $1.62. This is very close to the Indian government’s targeted price of less than US $1 in 2014. A lot of grow light developments in the last two weeks. A Japanese company Spread is planning to start constructing an automated vegetable factory in spring 2016. Meanwhile the U.S. government is financing an innovative lighting research project that aims to use lighting to boost plant immunity. Sharp also announced an innovative LED bulb its developing in partnership with Hiroshima prefecture to keep plants safe from moths.

Clinching headlines this week, GE has announced it will be spinning off its new energy businesses including LED, solar energy, electric vehicle and energy storage into a separate entity. The new company will start off with US $1 billion financing and is expected to grow fivefold to US $5 billion in the next five years, according to a Bloomberg report.

Waning growth in the sapphire substrate market is beginning to impact certain sapphire manufacturers. LEDinside latest reports show declined LED lighting demands triggered a 30% decline in the sapphire industry, leading to Tera Xtal Technology’s decision to cut 180 jobs.

Chinese LED manufacturer Kingsun Opto has acquired a 6% stake in Lumileds, potentially becoming one of the three largest stakeholders of the former Philips LED component and automotive lighting business.

Taiwan’s leading LED chip maker announced it would be slashing around 60 jobs this week, but market rumors estimate the number of layoffs are much higher. Easing backlight market demands, and challenges following the absorption of FOREPI has placed Epistar in a particularly challenging market position.

Osram announced it will sell its stake in Foshan Lighting (Felco) as part of its company restructure process. LEDinside analysts believe the company is trying to raise its lighting business value by selling the businesses separately. In an exclusive interview with LEDinside, Rahul Bammi, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Lumileds and David Cosenza, the company’s Product Manager for the LUXEON Color LED Family spoke about how they are positioning their newly launched LUXEON Color C products at the entertainment and architectural lighting businesses. Seoul Viosys and SETi’s UV LEDs are being used by NASA for sterilization aboard the International Space station (ISS). Taiwanese LED manufacturers revenue performance down 20% during first half of 2015.

Chinese manufacturers are delivering solid performance for first half of 2015, especially San’an Opto, which was the most profitable among a survey of 14 Chinese LED manufacturers. Osram recalls nearly 50,000 LED T8 tubes over burn hazards. The number of resigning Chinese managers nearly double in the industry in 2015, which could indicate the general economy situation has become much tougher. GE discontinues some traditional lighting products to turn its focus to LED lighting.

Top news this week, IKEA recalls LED PATRULL Nightlight after an electric shock involving an Austrian boy was reported. Apple is coming up with new sapphire applications in its new sapphire antenna patent. Go Scale Capital is heavily borrowing from Chinese banks in its acquisition of Lumileds, a Reuters Chinese report records where each fund is coming from. Chinese courts invalidate a Cree patent in its suit against Harvatek. Will Soraa three-phosphor violet pump LED prevail and take over blue LEDs in the future? Find out in the article below. A suspected Hong Kong blogger turns eyes with her improvised LED outfit.

NASA astronauts take a bite out of space grown veggies sprouted from LED grow lights. IKEA to swap all lighting products with LEDs starting from September 2015. Security experts find a way to hack into ZigBee wireless connected products, even smart LED lights can be compromised. Cree reports losses in 2Q15, due to company restructure efforts.

Cree and Epistar signs a global LED patent cross-license agreement, a move that is considered by many in the industry to defend their market position and play on their technology strengths. Korean LED chip manufacturer Seoul Semiconductor appears to be expanding its UV LED product range through affiliate company Seoul Viosys. Seoul Viosys acquisition of U.S. UV LED manufacturer SETi has been approved by U.S. Department of Defense. According to a Korea Times report Seoul Viosys was in talks with DOD for three years before the acquisition proposal was approved. Some interesting applications this week, LEDs might be making their ways into biochem labs in the future. UC Berkley bioengineers have found a way to speed up replicating DNA with the aid of LED lights. In another turn of developments, Arizona State University researchers demonstrate the first white laser, which could potentially replace most LED applications in the future.

This week Philips and Osram both announced their revenues for 2Q15. While both companies reported growth in the LED segment (Philips 21%, Osram , traditional lighting businesses have declined for both companies (Philips declined 16%, . Philips financial report also reflects a more pessimistic global economic outlook, with sales in China dropping. LED industry market trends are transforming from price wars to patent wars, according to Chinese media Money Weekly analyses. Among important industry acquistions, LED display manufacturer Ledman is spending EUR 25 million to acquire global leading sports media company Infront Sports and Media.