LED patent, "war" constantly

In 2011, the field of semiconductor lighting patents is still "war".

Korea’s patent holding company Bluestone Innovation sued Taiwan’s LED maker Yuen-Yuan Optoelectronics; AUO filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Japan’s Sharp Corporation and its US subsidiary; Samsung sued OSRAM for infringement of its LED technology patent; Nichia filed an LED patent litigation. Complaints of Everlight's products...... Throughout the patent "war", the protagonist is still a number of "households" of the big factory, the patent battle is more qualified players of the game, others are more likely to evade.

While at the same time a field of patent thermal warfare, the trend of cooperation between large patent companies has gradually become apparent. For example, Cree and OSRAM have signed a comprehensive global patent cross-license agreement. Cree has signed a similar cross-license agreement with Philips. Entered an existing patent agreement on LED technology with Nichia and Toyota Synthetic. In addition to OSRAM's cooperation with Cree, it also indicated that it has completed the global patenting with Nichia Chemical, Toyota Synthesizer and Philips. In addition, Sharp and Toyota have signed and signed an LED interaction authorization agreement; AUO and Sharp have mutually authorized the withdrawal of their lawsuit, Rui Xuan and LG patent infringement case settlement.

Some analysts pointed out that giants' mutual grants of patents have become part of their global strategy and have become the trend of international patent disputes. The giants' joint efforts will undoubtedly build a wall of patents. Enterprises outside the wall will inevitably have some problems. .

Some analysts pointed out that once the technology of the high-tech industry enters the stage of take-off of the market, the world war of patents also follows, and the ability to fight patent warfare has also become a high entry barrier for the LED lighting industry. In response to the ever-increasing scale of international patent warfare in the technology industry, Taiwan and South Korea’s industrial circles have made significant moves. Taiwan’s Industrial Research Institute has announced the establishment of IP BANK to assist Taiwanese manufacturers in the international patent warfare and establish a counterclaim fund to raise funds. At least 500 million Taiwan dollars, in conjunction with the government and civil forces to fight the war on international patents; South Korea's LED industry will jointly target large-scale counterattacks against overseas companies' patent offensive operations, want to use patent consensus to block other large-scale lawsuits of competing factories.

“Chinese companies must not ignore the issue of patents, and should pay attention to it and be prepared to deal with the coming events.” For domestic companies, understanding the patent situation and strengthening patent early warning are equally pressing. At present, the core technologies of LED lighting industry are mostly controlled by foreign companies. Enterprises from the United States, Japan, and Europe not only occupy most of the market share, but also own 80% to 90% of original invention patents in the upstream area of ​​the global LED lighting industry chain. At present, domestic applications are mostly peripheral patents, and core patents are lacking. With the further development of the market, patent issues need special attention.