Cree is bringing another Taiwanese LED manufacturer to court, as the company aims to maintain market dominance in U.S. The company has sued Unity Opto and its luminaire client Feit Electric for violating eight LED patents. By the end of the week, Cree created a huge shock in the LED industry with its low-priced new LED smart bulb, which is one of the first in the industry aimed at resolving long term incompatibility issues among different smart bulb operating platforms.

A major Epistar shareholder has demanded for Chinese LED chip manufacturer San’an Opto to withdraw investments in the company, due to the Chinese company’s headhunting activities, according to a recent Economic Daily News report.

Chinese LED manufacturer HC Semitek announced on Thursday, it would be privately issuing bonds to raise RMB 500 million (US $80.81 million) to replenish the company’s depleted cash flow and improve finances.

Taiwan topped global rankings last year for LED component output value, and the industry is expected to keep up 14% growth throughout 2015 to reach US $5.37 billion, according to statistics compiled by Taiwan’s Photonics Industry and Technology Development Association (PIDA).

The U.S. Department of Energy's CALiPER program has released a special report on LED lamps available through the retail marketplace and targeted toward general consumers. While previous reports in the CALiPER retail lamps series have focused on basic performance parameters, such as lumen output, efficacy, and color quality, the new report – CALiPER Retail Lamps Study 3.1 – focuses on the dimming, power quality, and flicker characteristics of a subset of 14 LED A lamps from CALiPER Retail Lamps Study 3, as controlled by four different retail-available dimmers.

Cree introduces the Connected Cree® LED Bulb, the first smart LED bulb to deliver the combination of the lighting experience customers expect from Cree with industry-leading simplicity, multi-platform compatibility and affordability. The new 60-watt replacement Connected Cree LED Bulb is compatible with Wink and ZigBee® certified hubs and is available at The Home Depot® for just US $14.97, a price poised to drive adoption.

Taiwanese LED manufacturer Unity Opto Technology (Unity Opto) is planning to retaliate against Cree’s recent patent infringement lawsuit, according to a Money DJ report.

LG was ordered by South Korea’s labor ministry to halt OLED panel production, after a nitrogen gas leak on Monday claimed the life of two workers and injured four, according to a Reuters report.

GL Optic based in Weilheim/Teck, Germany has launched operations as a separate business unit. Following a spin-off from parent company Just Normlicht, the brand name has now become an independent entity. The move is the result of a sharp increase in demand for all types of light measurement instruments and measurement systems, as well as the positive response to the GL Optic brand.

Tired of checking watches and counting laps to check his training progress, Chip Beard, a certified USA Triathlon Fitness Level 1 Coach, has designed an underwater LED lighting system to assist swimmers.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released a new GATEWAY report that summarizes the results of a survey regarding conversions to solid-state lighting in museums. The survey was sent to members of the museum community who had requested a copy of “The Guidelines for Assessing Solid-State Lighting for Museums,” the pivotal resource co-authored by Jim Druzik and Stefan Michalski in 2011.

Kateeva today announced a key partnership with Sumitomo Chemical Company, Ltd. (Sumitomo). Sumitomo is a global solution OLED materials leader. Kateeva is a leading provider of novel inkjet printing equipment for OLED mass production. The non-exclusive agreement calls for Sumitomo to pair its world-class inks with Kateeva's world-class YIELDjet™ platform to help speed affordable OLED TVs to market.

New LED lighting has been installed on an advertising billboard in Mumbai, India.  The luminaires, designed and manufactured by Leo Integrated Technologies Pvt Ltd, leverage the Bridgelux Vero(R) 29 LED Arrays to produce higher quality colors and brighter illumination than the existing metal halide.

Cree’s act of filing lawsuits against Feit Electric and Unity Opto recently shows the firm’s struggle to maintain dominance in U.S. LED lighting market amid growing popularity of LED lighting products, according to a Bloomberg report.

U.S. LED manufacturer Cree’s recent lawsuit against Unity Opto and its luminaire client Feit Electronics will not impact the company’s revenue performance in 2015, a UDN report cited Unity Opto Spokesperson Jacky Wen saying.

NEUTEX LED Lighting has recently announced a major expansion to its corporate, manufacturing and warehouse headquarters based in Houston, TX. After three months of planning and design, the NEUTEX LED expansion project is near breaking ground.

Rainbow Light is a self-own brand of Rainbow Light Technology Co., Ltd.  Based on MEMS micro spectrometer technology , its products, such as micro spectral module, LED and light-relative measurement, transmittance measurement, and lux meter, etc., that are all manufactured professionally, with exclusive technology, professional RD capability, and holistic management system.  Micro spectrometer is with tiny dimension, extra-low cost, high resolution, anti- seismic, and precise features and can be applied on photoelectric measurement, environmental monitor, biomedical monitor, and Commodity Industry.        

Cree has filed complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin against Feit Electric Company, Inc. and its Asian supplier, Unity Opto Technology Co., Ltd., to curb infringement on Cree’s patented technologies and to address Feit’s false and misleading advertising claims that certain of its products meet ENERGY STAR® specifications. The suits allege infringement of 10 patents related to LED lighting.

Everlight has breached the high revenue barrier to become a new official member of the “US $1 billion Club” as the company’s consolidated annual revenue for 2014 soared up 23.99% to NT $30.61 billion, according to a news report from China Times.

The main objective of Epistar’s acquisition of TSMC SSL is to obtain key LED substrate technology to prevent Japanese manufacturer Toshiba from taking the lead in GaN-on-Si technology, according to a Chinese-language Wealth Magazine report.

Indian LED light manufacturers might be benefiting from a new government initiatives to promote the usage of energy saving bulbs, which the government projects will reach INR 200 billion (US $3.27 billion) by 2020, according to a report by Business Standard.

Agartala has completed the first phase of its 35,000 streetlight retrofit project last Thursday, according to a report of The Free Press Journal.

Epistar’s acquisition of TSMC SSL has been confirmed this week. In a joint press release the two companies reveal Epistar will acquire a 94% share in TSMC SSL. There are also a lot of new LED applications at CES 2015 this year. Japanese electronic giant Sony is entering the competition with its audio speaker LED lights and LED display, while auto makers Mercedes-Benz and BMW dazzle the crowd with their advanced lighting solutions. Another Japanese manufacturer Panasonic is working on acquiring larger market shares in the ASEAN region, according to Malaysian newspaper The Star.

Changshu city located in Jiangsu Province, China, has exported a total of 16,063 kilograms of LED phosphor powder valuing US $12.02 million last year, according to statistics compiled by the Changshu Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

Last week LEDinside reported Epistar’s intention of acquiring TSMC SSL, a LED lighting subsidiary of leading Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSMC, the two companies have released a joint press release Friday (Taipei Time) confirming the deal.

Following listing on the Taiwan bourse on Dec. 19, 2014, leading sapphire manufacturer Phecda Technology announced its ambition of becoming one of the world’s top three Patterned Sapphire Substrate (PSS) supplier, according to a report by China Times.

Domestic users in the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) can contribute to 33 million units saving annually if they adopt the use of LEDs, according to a report from The Hindu.

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced “Prakash Path – way to light” campaign to call for a national energy conservation revolution, according to reports from several Indian news agencies.

The rapidly changing landscape of lighting in the U.S., largely due to the widespread acceptance of light-emitting diode (LED) technology, has opened a universe of new possibilities regarding LED replacement lamps.

Not to be left behind rivals such as BMW and Audi, Mercedes-Benz has given its prototype automatic driving car a signaling and indicator system comprised of LEDs.