Industry News

In today's society, price competition is generally recognized as the lowest-end competition and the competition without the most technological content, and it is competition without any benefits at all. Then what is the core of the competition? LED lighting manufacturer C-Star believes that the core competitiveness of the company is technology and patented technology. I like Gree ’s advertising. Gree masters core technology. Only mastering core technology can occupy a leading position in the fierce market competition. Defeated! Let's take a look at the seven major patent litigation cases in the LED industry. All major manufacturers have gone to court for patents!

On March 24, 2016, a federal judge in California issued a judgment announcing that Japanese manufacturer Enplas intentionally infringed Seoul Semiconductor's LED backlight patent. The judge also agreed that Seoul Semiconductor ’s patent was valid and rejected the patent invalidation claim claimed by Enplas. The judge also ruled that Seoul Semiconductor will receive USD 4.07 million (equivalent to approximately RMB 26.4 million) in damages.

On March 18, 2016, Seoul Viosys, the world's top UV LED solution provider, filed a lawsuit against the US UV application product manufacturer Salon Supply Store (Salon for short) for infringement of its UV LED related patents.

It is reported that the related patents infringed by Salon are related to the manufacturing process and application fields of UV LEDs, including EPI technology, FAB technology that generates ultraviolet rays, packaging technology of components and curing technology. Yeojin Yoon, vice president of ViosysUV R & D Center in Seoul, said the lawsuit is just the beginning and will continue to take strong legal action against those peer companies and UV finished product manufacturers that have confirmed infringement.

On March 21, 2016, Japan ’s LED manufacturer Niya Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. filed a lawsuit against the United States East Texas Federal District Court against the US LCD TV brand Vizio for infringing its US patent US 8,530,250. On March 24, The Central California District Court sued Vizio for infringing four patents of Nichia Chemicals, including "US7,855,092", "US7,901,959", "US7,915,631" and "US8,309,375", requesting the court to issue a permanent injunction, and Award damages.

According to information from the US legal media, Vizio ’s LCD TV products use LED backlight modules from Taiwanese manufacturers. The LED chip products used by Vizio were identified as infringing products by Nichia, so they sued the LCD TV factory.

It is understood that the infringing LED product models of Guangjun are "BN-D4242J-A3", "BN-D4242E-A3" and other infrared LED chips, which have infringed on the ownership of Jingdian including Taiwan inventions No. 141155, No. 170789, 4 invention patents such as No. 202662 and No. I283031.

On March 4, 3016, Nichia sued in the Beijing Intellectual Property Court of China against Everlight Electronics (2393), a Chinese subsidiary of Everlight Electronics (China) Co., Ltd., and an authorized distributor of Everlight Electronics—Beijing Metropolis Everlight Electronic Devices Sales Center, etc., request permanent injunction and damages.

It is reported that Nichia is based on two YAG related patents in this lawsuit: Chinese invention patent number 97196762.8 (“762 patent”) and Chinese invention patent number 200610095837.4 (“837 patent”), claiming that the defendant sold LED products in China Infringement, including product models 334-15 / T1C1-4VXC-L (ES) and 67-21UMC / S3031 / TR8 / LT infringe patents 762 and 837, while product models 67-21S / KK2C-H6565M41N42936Z6 / 2T infringe Patent No. 762.

On January 26, 2016, LED manufacturer Hongqi Technology accused the US LED manufacturer CREE of infringing one of its patents in the Federal District Court of Northern California. The patent number of the white LED is US 6,841,934. As of now, the litigation between the two parties is still in progress, and Hong Qi is cautiously optimistic about the progress of the litigation.

Previously, Cree launched a patent lawsuit against Taiwan factory Hongqi on September 15, 2014, and Hongqi immediately launched a counterattack. Not only did it file a lawsuit against Cree and its subsidiaries for patent infringement in the United States on December 5, 2014, and in 2015 In July of 1997, on the occasion of legal offense and defense, it successfully invalidated the related Chinese patents of Cree.

On January 25, 2016, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that Everlight Electronics and its U.S. subsidiary Everlight Americas, Inc. infringed three patent rights of Nichia-U.S. Patent No. 8,530,250 and U.S. Patent No. 7,432,589 US Patent, US Patent No. 7,462,870.

The lawsuit has gone through a two-year trial period. In September 2013, Nichia Chemical filed a lawsuit against East Texas District Court against Yiguang, and its U.S. subsidiary infringed three Nichia patents. Nichia also prosecuted in November the same year. On May 25, 2016, the U.S. District Court for East Texas confirmed that Everlight had infringed on three patents owned by Nichia Chemicals, and also denied that Everlight and other companies had defended against the invalidity of the three patents. Niya also took advantage of the chase and appealed the injunction part on February 16, 2016.