Eindhoven, The Netherlands – Today Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) introduces a patent licensing program for LED-based luminaires used in the general illumination, architectural and theatrical markets. It is Philips’ policy to share its intellectual property for basic control inventions for LED-based luminaires through licensing. This Philips IP addresses the basic control technologies required in a broad range of LED lighting applications. This new program extends the former Color Kinetics licensing program to enable faster growth of the Solid State Lighting market.

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, announces that it has entered into an agreement with Toyoda Gosei providing the companies (including wholly owned affiliates) with access to each other’s patented LED chip and packaged LED technology (including white LED technology). Toyoda Gosei and Cree have agreed in the future to discuss “have made” rights for LED chips.

In the side view LED design patent infringement litigation between Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (“Seoul”) and Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”), Judge Chesney of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an "Order Denying Plaintiff's [Nichia's] Motion for Finding of Exceptional Case and Award Attorney's Fees." By the motion, Nichia sought approximately $2.5 million in fees against Seoul.  In her order, Judge Chesney ruled that it "would not be appropriate" to award fees to Nichia and that the case was not exceptional.

Epistar Corporation obtained a worldwide license from Dr. Neumark for the ’499 Patent as well as Dr. Neumark’s United States Patent No. 4,904,618, issued February 27, 1990.

Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) announced today that it filed an action with Tokyo District Court against Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. of Japan (“Seoul Semiconductor of Japan”), a Japanese subsidiary of Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (“Seoul Semiconductor”), in which Nichia claims for the prohibition of infringement upon the patent right held by Nichia and compensation for damages.

Professor Emerita Gertrude Neumark Rothchild (“Prof. Neumark”), of Columbia University, filed a complaint in the United States International Trade Commission  against 34 companies on February 19, 2008. Everlight signed a settlement and non-exclusive license agreement with Prof. Neumark on April 11, 2008.

Concerning the matter of the complaint filed with the United States International Trade Commission (the “ITC”) by Dr. Gertrude Neumark Rothschild (“Dr. Neumark”) of New York State, U.S.A., on February 20, 2008, seeking a block on imports, etc., of short-wavelength LEDs, etc., based on U.S. patent No. 5252499 (“the ’499 patent”) held by Dr. Neumark, please be informed as follows.

Seoul Semiconductor, one of the world’s leading LED manufacturers, signed a license agreement with Professor Gertrude Neumark Rothschild of the United States in early April 2008. Professor Neumark Rothschild, formerly with Columbia University, filed a complaint in the United States International Trade Commission (US ITC) against 34 companies on February 19, 2008.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has voted to institute an investigation of certain short-wavelength light emitting diodes, laser diodes, and products containing same. The products at issue in this investigation are short-wavelength (e.g., blue, violet) LEDs and laser diodes that are used in products such as hand-held mobile devices, instrument panels, billboards, traffic lights, HD DVD players (e.g., Blu-ray disc players), and data storage devices. 30 companies are affected by the investigation.

Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions, the new entity formed by Philips' acquisition of Color Kinetics, and Renaissance Lighting have completed a licensing agreement that provides Renaissance Lighting with access to Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions' worldwide patent portfolio. The agreement enables Renaissance Lighting to offer its own intelligent LED lighting products, as well as to use Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions' core technology in other new product development.

Intematix Corp. a leading innovator of advanced materials solutions and provider of patent-backed merchant phosphor products for solid state lighting applications, today announced the addition of US Patent Number 7,311,858 for silicate based yellow-green phosphors to its growing intellectual property portfolio. Yellow-green phosphors are typically combined with a blue LED emitter to produce energy efficient solid state white lighting in a growing variety of applications.

Cree, a market-leading innovator and manufacturer of semiconductors that enhance the value of LED solid-state lighting products by significantly increasing their energy performance, has got granted patent number US7,335,920B2,  dealing with enhancement of LED efficiency. 

Catalyst Semiconductor, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATS) a supplier of analog, mixed-signal and non-volatile memory semiconductors, announced it has received a patent for a unique step-down switching regulator circuit architecture applicable to step-down regulators for driving high brightness LEDs.  The patent, titled “LED current bias control using step-down regulator” (patent number 7,323,828), was developed to simplify the design of high brightness LED lighting in emerging household, commercial and automotive lighting applications. 

High brightness LEDs are mounted directly on a heat pipe or are mounted on a substrate, which is mounted on the heat pipe. The heat pipe can be a common electrode for the LEDs mounted on the heat pipe. Multiple heat pipes can be arranged so that the LED arrays form a light recycling cavity to emit and reflect light.

OSRAM has granted a license, in return for an appropriate fee, to PerkinElmer Inc., the American supplier of precision and photonic components, that allows it to manufacture and market white LEDs with conversion technology. The patent for this technology is held by the OSRAM subsidiary OSRAM Opto Semiconductors.

A monolithic, multi-color semiconductor light emitting diode (LED) is formed with a multi-bandgap, multi-quantum well (MQW) active light emitting region which emits light at spaced-apart wavelength bands or regions ranging from UV to red. The MQW active light emitting region comprises a MQW layer stack including n quantum barriers which space apart n−1 quantum wells. Embodiments include those wherein the MQW layer stack includes quantum wells of at least two different bandgaps for emitting light of two different wavelengths, e.g., in the blue or green regions and in at least one other region, and the intensities of the emissions are adjusted to provide a preselected color of combined light emission, preferably white light.m barrier, a 3rd green quantum well, a quantum barrier, a 1st blue quantum well, a quantum barrier, a 2nd blue quantum well, and a quantum barrier.