Large LED companies are increasingly turning to strategies focused on filing patent infringement lawsuits against competitors, Korean LED giant Seoul Semiconductor has become the latest company to take legal action against 29 firms worldwide for infringing backlight, filament, LED chip and package patents, reported Business Korea.

The upcoming iPhone 8 will overhaul basic form factor designs, gone will be the flat glass screen design to sport a curved plastic OLED display made by arch-rival Samsung, reported The Korean Herald.

Andreas Weisl (38), former Vice President Europe of Korean LED manufacturer Seoul Semiconductor (SSC), has taken on the position of CEO at Seoul Semiconductor Europe GmbH based Munich, Germany, with effect from Nov. 11, 2016.

Veeco Instruments announced  that OSRAM Opto Semiconductors GmbH has completed an agreement naming Veeco as the supplier for Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) and Precision Surface Processing (PSP) systems needed for high-volume LED production in Kulim. As part of the agreement, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors has ordered multiple TurboDisc® EPIK®700 Gallium Nitride (GaN) MOCVD, and WaferStorm® 3306 PSP Wet Process systems.

Revolution Lighting Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVLT) ("Revolution Lighting"), a global provider of advanced LED lighting solutions, today announced that it has recently completed LED retrofit projects for religious facilities within New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland, totaling US $800,000. This includes the comprehensive LED lighting retrofit, led by its distributor GB Energie LED, of the Southern Friendship Missionary Baptist Church ("the Church") facilities, based in Temple Hills, Maryland.

Dinos Café, a popular old-fashion American diner located in Bloomingdale, Illinois replaced their outdated 250 watt HID lights on their rooftop with weather resistant, vibrant, state-of-the-art color changing 30w Serenity LED floodlights. These LED floodlights are remote-controlled with 32 different color options and are part of the Serenity LED Rainbow Series. Serenity LED, a U.S. based innovative lighting company, manufactured these LED Floodlights and used a US Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business to install the lights.

After halting trade on the Chinese bourse for four consecutive months, Kingsun Optoelectronics recently announced its Hong Kong subsidiary will be acquiring China’s leading international education enterprise NIT Group for RMB 2.9 billion (US $41.76 million)

The Baker-Polito Administration today announced US $11.4 million in grant funding opportunities to help cities and towns across Massachusetts convert traditional streetlights to LED technology through the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) Rapid LED Streetlight Conversion Program. DOER has partnered with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC), Energy New England (ENE), and four Municipal Light Plant (MLP) communities to administer the grant funding to municipalities that currently own their traditional streetlights and expedite streetlight conversions.

Scripps Networks Interactive, the leader in lifestyle media, surveyed 700 U.S. homeowners of all ages, finding that safety and comfort are the primary reasons consumers invest in smart home technology. The study was conducted through the company’s Under One Roof consumer panel, in partnership with the Consumer Technology Association; the National Kitchen and Bath Association; the National Association of Home Builders; CEDIA; and Shelly Palmer Strategic Advisors. The research findings will be presented at CES® 2017 and at Design and Construction Week 2017.

AIXTRON, a worldwide leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, announced that U.S. based Lumentum Holdings, a leading manufacturer of semiconductor photonic devices for communications, industrial, and consumer applications, has placed a repeat order for multiple AIX 2800G4-TM systems to produce devices for varied optoelectronic and laser applications.

Towards the end of 2016, more mergers and acquisition talks have been concluded. CFIUS opposition against Go Scale Capital acquiring Lumileds for US $3.3 billion earlier in January resulted in the wipe out of US $1.3 billion in company value for the LED chip and component maker. Lumileds parent company Philips Lighting sold the independent legal entity for US $2 billion to Apollo Global Management.

Laser diode is a next generation lighting technology incubating in Shenzhen, China, giving hope that the region will emerge as a leading international laser lighting player soon.

LG Display is merging its businesses to specialize in OLED technology, a sector the company considers its next generation growth engine. To keep up with accelerated growth in the OLED market, the company intends to merge and restructure existing distributed business structure by product to optimize efficiency and synergy, reported Business Korea.

The Odisha Government will supply energy efficient LED tube lights and ceiling fans at subsidized rates, said state government Energy Secretary Rajesh Verma.

The relighting of Detroit – a city that just three years ago was in chronic darkness – has been completed on time and under budget.

 David Errigo, vice president of sales for luminaire manufacturer LumenOptix, has been elected chair of the National Lighting Bureau (NLB), the independent, not-for-profit, lighting-education foundation sponsored by professional societies, trade associations, manufacturers, utilities, and agencies of the U.S. government.

The ZigBee Alliance, an association of companies creating, maintaining and delivering open, global standards for the low-power wireless Internet of Things (IoT), and the Thread Group, an organization focused on making Thread the foundation for the Internet of Things in the home and beyond, today announced that multiple members of both organizations have demonstrated prototypes that run the ZigBee Alliance’s universal language for smart devices on Thread networks. The demonstrations, shown privately at the Thread Group’s Members Meeting in November and set for public display in both organizations’ booths at CES, are a key milestone in their liaison agreement, and highlight accelerating momentum behind an emerging ecosystem of connected products that will interoperate over Thread IP networks using the widely deployed ZigBee language.

Smart-lighting start up Gooee, creator of the first ‘full stack’ cloud-based platform that connects lighting manufacturers to the IoT, has partnered with Bajaj Electricals, the Indian manufacturer and supplier of electrical products that is part of the US$20 billion publicly listed Bajaj Group.

Foxconn subsidiary Sharp will no longer be supplying LCD panels to Samsung Electronics starting in 2017, a report from The Japan Times cited industry sources saying.

Fluence Bioengineering today announced that its LED systems have been selected by MedMen, a leading cannabis firm, for its newly renovated cultivation facility in Los Angeles. The new, state-of-the-art vertical farm replaces a traditional single-tier cultivation facility, and enables MedMen to use fewer natural resources, increase overall revenue per square foot and reduce operating cost per pound.

1 in 10 design engineers are still relying on purely physical prototypes, potentially adding significant, unnecessary costs to their designs. That’s according to new research from 6SigmaET, which surveyed over 350 engineers working in industrial, consumer and mass-produced electronics.

Today, Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting and the Carnia Industrial Park inaugurated a new pavilion dedicated to the production of electronics for LED rear lighting for cars in the production complex in Tolmezzo (UD) in Friuli Venezia Giulia. The new industrial site has production lines for circuit boards and will be completed by a design center specifically dedicated to electronics for rear illumination for cars.

Higher living standards in the modern world has transformed luminaires from a simple light source, to a lighting device that provides mood setting ambient lighting, visual stimulation, create a comfortable environment lit with soft light beams. These developments are making secondary optic designs in luminaires increasingly important, Taiwan-based Chung Kuang Optics (CKO) which specializes in the art of lighting designs, assisted manufacturers in their international branding strategies to make premium products. The company’s investments to build a new facility in 2017 has also caught industry attention.

India, one of the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gasses, aims to extend its lighting efficiency program to seven other Asian countries and the UK with aid from the World Bank, reported Bloomberg.

Maharashtra state in India became the second largest distributor of LED bulbs in the nation-wide campaign to slash energy consumption, reported The Hindu.

Lighting manufacturers are being urged to pay greater attention to lighting control detectors, in order to pass on improved energy savings to customers.

A new Chinese LED company Suijing Optoelectronics listed on China’s Over The Counter Bulletin Board (OTCCB) has become the latest company to sign a red KSF phosphor license agreement with GE Lighting.

Japan Display Inc. (JDI) intends to acquire Panasonic and Sony’s OLED joint venture JOLED to better compete with Korean rivals and emerging Chinese players, reported Nikkei Asian Review.

The Jaipur Metro Rail in India will be replacing all sodium lights at the Vivek Vihar station with LED lights to cut energy consumption, reported The Times of India.

Mayor Emanuel has announced that the City is conducting a public demonstration of next-generation streetlights in seven neighborhoods as part of the Chicago Smart Lighting Project, which will upgrade streetlights across the city. Residents are being asked to provide feedback on the new lighting, which represents the latest advances in lighting technology, through the end of the year.