On Feb.,11, 2014, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)  issued a Final Written Decision in inter partes review (“IPR”) proceeding IPR2012-000005. The USPTO held that all claims of United States Patent No. 6,653,215 (the “’215 Patent”) are not patentable, and ordered them cancelled. The USPTO also denied Emcore Corporation’s Motion to Amend Claims. A copy of the Final Written Decision is attached below.

On December 20, 2013, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan granted four separate Motions that Nichia brought against Everlight for deficiencies in the discovery provided by Everlight in the ongoing patent infringement litigation involving YAG phosphors to create white LEDs.*1

On November 22, 2013, Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) filed an amended complaint in its on-going patent infringement lawsuit against Taiwanese LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. and Everlight’s U.S. subsidiary Everlight Americas, Inc. (collectively “Everlight”), originally filed on September 11, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Patent wars between Japanese LED manufacturer Nichia and Taiwanese manufacturer Everlight have intensified over the last two to three years. Last month, Katsuyuki Akutagawa, General Manager of Legal Affairs and Intellectual Properties at Nichia visited Taiwan to clarify the ongoing disputes. Akutagawa pointed out that Everlight has continued to file meaningless patent invalidity lawsuits against Nichia. In response, the Japanese company declared a full scale patent war against the largest Taiwanese LED manufacturer, and revealed plans of hunting down Everlight for patent infringements in any country, by taking all necessary legal actions. 

Japanese LED manufacturer Nichia has shown no signs of making peace with Taiwan LED manfuacturer Everlight over the latest patent dispute. In a rare move, Nichia held a press conference in Taiwan to clarify the situation and criticized Everlight’s former response towards the case. Nichia’s General Manager of Legal Affairs and Intellectual Properties, Katsuyuki Akutagawa, who arrived in Taipei on Sept. 13 pointed out, Everlight had been spreading biased information regarding the patent dispute over the past year, which has misdirected Nichia clients and high ranking client officials to believe the company’s patents were worthless. Akutagawa appearance in Taipei shows Nichia has abandoned its more conservative approach from the past to a more aggressive stance.