Two rival LED makers, Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. and Nichia Corporation announced that they have settled all litigations on patent and other issues as well as other legal disputes currently pending between them in the United States, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and Korea. The settlement includes a cross license agreement covering LED and laser diode technologies, which will permit the companies to access all of each other's patented technologies.

Opto Tech Corp. and Nichia Corp. will go further on LED cooperation, with Nichia pledging to increase supply of LED chips to its partner in return for Opto Tech’s commitment to making its chips on a contract basis and selling more of Nichia-branded chips to packagers.

Intematix Corp., a phosphor-technology powerhouse, has begun to carve out its niche in the global LED lighting market by poaching expertise, acquiring facilities, and upgrading LED know-how. The program began last year, the company has opened its Taiwan subsidiary Intematix Technology Center (ITC) in Taoyuan County, northern Taiwan; acquired a phosphor factory in Suzhou, China; and named Jeff Lagaly, the former Global Sales Director for Cree Lighting, as Vice President of Sales, LED Lighting.

Taiwan LED makers, including Epistar Corp., Everlight Electronics Co. and Opto Tech Corp., are hopefully to benefit from LED backlight notebook PCs sales boom with increasing popularity of LED backlight notebook PCs to generate demand for 1.5-2 billion LED chips in 2009.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. announced its intelligent lighting solutions - PSoC Designer(TM) 5.0 visual design software and the CY3265N-RGB evaluation kit support the Power LED series from Nichia Corporation.

It’s reported that Sharp Corporation and Nichia Corporation have entered into a patent cross-licensing agreement covering LEDs and laser diodes to respond to market demand for LED lighting products and Blu-ray Disc recorders.

On October 1, 2008, Korea Intellectual Property Tribunal ("KIPT") ruled that a patent, related to LED element, (Patent # KP 491482, hereinafter "'482 patent") owned by Nichia Corporation ("Nichia) is invalid based on lack of inventiveness.

It’s reported that LEDs 2008 is to be headlined by key industry players include Philips Lumileds Lighting, Cree Inc, Osram Opto Semiconductors, Toyoda Gosei, Nichia, the US EPA and Audi.

Recently, in Amherst a local manufacturing firm announced that the company is continuing to do what is possible to make our planet a greener place to live.Chuck Cartmill from C-Vision, who is in the process of developing an LED technology to put into streetlighting said the majority of lighting pollution and wasted energy is from the overheads you see out on the streets, their fixture design is set up to use substantially less energy, but also comply with what is called Dark Skies, so all the light is directed down.

Recently, Toshiba released new LED lights that are shaped like midget reflector and beam lamps.LED-based midget Reflector and Beam Lamps can be used with the existing light bulb sockets without any special adjustment because they have the E26 base. The new lights use Nichia Corp's LED. The light source comes in two types, with one incandescent and the other white. They are expected to be used as the illumination lighting for signboards, facilities and shops.

Recently, Japanese LED maker Nichia Corporation has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany against its Korean rival, Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. The lawsuit claims that Seoul's Acriche series white LED product infringes the Nichia patent EP(DE)622858. Seoul's German subsidiary, Seoul Semiconductor Europe GmbH, and its German distributor, Conrad Electronic SE, are also listed in the lawsuit, which seeks injunctive relief and compensation for damages.

Recently, Intellectual Property Bank Corp (IPB) has announced its "Applicant Score Rankings" based on the company's proprietary benchmarks for technical competitiveness of manufacturers engaged in the LED lighting system business. According to IPB, a company that provides consulting related to intellectual property, Nichia Corp is the top manufacturer on a basis of competitive technology in the LED lighting system area.