San’an Opto said that the company has engaged in preliminary discussions with Osram upon a potential acquisition or partnership. However, the two parties only met once to discuss related issues so far.

A lawsuit filed by Nichia against Tachibana Eletech and E&E Japan, which companies imported and/or sold Blue LEDs manufactured by a Taiwanese company, Everlight Electronics, the Tokyo District Court found that the importation/sale of those Blue LEDs by E&E and Tachibana constituted infringement of Nichia's patent. However, Everlight refuted that it respects the court’s judgement as JP3972943 expired on July 6, 2014. Therefore, the infringement will not have negative impact on the company’s products.

As previously communicated, Philips continues to simultaneously prepare for an initial public offering (IPO) or a private sale of Philips Lighting. With equity markets’ sentiment improving compared to the first couple of months of the year, an IPO increasingly appears a more likely outcome, subject to further market developments and other relevant circumstances.

Highlights this week: Apple has dropped Osram Licht from its list of top 200 suppliers and added Royal Philips to its supply chain, ahead of the release of the iPhone 7.

Osram is putting the focus on sustainable growth and wants to take even greater advantage of the potential offered by semiconductor-based lighting technologies. Prior to that, another important strategic step, the carve-out process of the general lighting lamps business, got under way. Given Osram’s strong financial standing, the company is proposing a dividend of €0.90 per share at Tuesday’s AGM. In parallel, Osram has in the meantime also started a share buyback program of up to €500 million.

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.

The LEDinside editorial team would like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday. Before the official countdown to 2014, our team has compiled a review of 10 important topics in the LED industry in 2013. This is a sneak peak we promise there is more to come next week so please stay tuned. Coming back to our usual course, despite the Christmas holiday season this week, Apple has kept up its pace of issuing patents. The company first issued a new quantum dot patent to enhance display colors, then with a flexible sapphire substrate display cover patent. 

Highlights this week: Philips releases a strangely flat LED bulb this week that resembles a horseshoe. The bulb without a heat sink is expected to help the manufacturer cut production costs. Also this week, Texas Instrument gives a comprehensive overview of the effects of the incandescent phase out in 2014, while LEDinside analysts give an in depth analysis of LED industry market trends next year at a seminar in Shenzhen China this week. In the OLED sector, Samsung shows its ambition in OLED technology by merging its OLED and LCD division, with Hon Hai (Foxconn technology) close behind with its announcement of mass producing OLED panels in 2015. For more please see below:

This week chubby TV developments have emerged on the radar screen. The TV is expected to become mainstream model in 2014, and to cope with ongoing price wars LED packagers are making swift changes in the packages used. Mid power LED sector is also seeing increased competition from EMC, PCTand Flip chips. The Chinese LED industry is facing tough challenges, whether it from corrupt government officials, or serious copycat issues in the decorative luminaire industry. Nichia and Everlight also enter a new round of patent wars in the U.S. this week. For more details please see below: