Apple Inc. (AAPL) used “bait-and-switch” tactics in negotiating a contract with sapphire-maker GT Advanced Technologies Inc. (GTATQ), guaranteeing itself “heads I win, tails you lose” terms, a GT executive said in an unsealed court document.

Plessey today announced its expansion into Chip Scale Packages and Wafer Level Packaging solutions leading to its Application Specific LED - the AS-LED™.  Recent performance improvements have elevated Plessey's award winning GaN-on-Silicon technology MaGIC™ LEDs to be competitive with any LED technology with improvements in key critical areas including lumens/watt, elevatingGaN-on-Silicon above existing LED technology.

Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar’s has showed steady revenue growth, accumulated revenue as of September 2014 has reached last year's total annual revenue of US $750 million, and it’s future revenue outlook remains positive. The company's merge with FOREPI is expected to further drive annual revenue growth to reach the $1 billion target soon, said Epistar Deputy Director of Marketing Center, Dr. Chiu-Lin Yao at LEDforum 2014 in Taipei, Taiwan last month.

French designers Linlin and Pierre-Yves Jaques are bringing the art of silhouette to a whole new level with the play of 3D printed lights.

Insourced LED circuit board production culminates three-year investment and adds technology-rich capabilities that help meet customer needs faster. Transformation brings 120 new contract and full-time positions to the plant. Site continues to add new LED lines and expand capabilities, lighting cities and spaces from the Middle East to Latin America to some of the most recognizable towns in the U.S.

Levent Touter, Senior Field Marketing Manager of  Aixtron discussed innovative MOCVD solutions and developments at LEDforum 2014, hosted by LEDinside last month in Taipei, Taiwan. The German MOCVD manufacturer's  R&D investment reached nearly US $100 million annually, and has recently sealed a deal with China’s top LED manufacturer San’an Opto to sell 50 MOCVD equipment.

Rubicon Technology, a leading provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, semiconductor, and optical industries, today reported financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2014.

For those that missed out on LEDforum 2014 this year, you can get a glimpse of what our speakers had to share through the special feature section below. We recommend taking a look at “Emerging Markets LED Industry Trends” article. Osram has been very active this week after announcing a successful transition into the LED lighting sector in its third quarter revenue report. Philips and Schréder settle a patent dispute, but Philips has declined to offer more information. Meanwhile, the unsealing of confidential documents had little impact on Apple and GTAT’s settlement. For more please see below.

Manufacturers, who hope to leave the fiercely competitive Chinese lighting market and other mature lighting markets, are turning their attention to emerging Southeast Asian markets or even Russia, said Roger Chu, Research Director of LEDinside at LEDforum 2014 which took place in Taipei, Taiwan last month.

After releasing Pad Extension Chip (PEC) in 2013, LED chip manufacturer Epistar, has improved the technical and support system for the product, and now the product is applied in direct-type LED TV backlight, lighting and flash lights. Epistar’s PEC chips will be applied in large volumes in direct-type LED TV next year, with target products being 32 inch to 45 inch LED TVs. The company’s orders are mainly from China and South Korea, said Epistar Deputy Director of Marketing Center, Dr. Chiu-Lin Yao while attending LEDforum 2014 held in Taipei, Taiwan on Oct. 24, 2014.

Philips decision to spin-off Philips Lumileds, automotive lighting and later lighting business in mid-2014 was mainly caused by emergence of Chinese LED manufacturers, and rapid market changes, said Roger Chu, Research Director of LEDinside at LEDforum 2014 held in Taipei, Taiwan on Oct. 24, 2014.

The supervisory board of OSRAM Licht has appointed Olaf Berlien as new chief executive officer (CEO). Berlien, 52, will take over his new function in January 2015. At the same time, Wolfgang Dehen will leave the company at his own request and by amicable agreement.

Philips Lumileds and Philips automotive lighting business will be rebranded under a new company name in 2015, said Sean Zhou, Regional Marketing Director, Asia, Philips Lumileds at LEDforum 2014, which took place on Friday in Taipei, Taiwan.

Osram has achieved its recently updated outlook for the fiscal year that ended in September 2014. Revenue rose one percent year over year on a comparable basis – meaning excluding portfolio and currency effects – and was more than €5.1 billion. The revenue share of LED-based products and solutions increased to 36 percent from 29 percent in fiscal 2013. In the fourth quarter, it reached already 39 percent. EBITA [1] excluding special items increased almost ten percent to EUR 449 million (US $) in fiscal 2014, translating into an EBITA margin of 8.7 percent, in particular due to positive effects from the OSRAM Push transformation program. 

The AllSeen Alliance, a cross-industry collaboration to advance the Internet of Everything through an open source software project, today announced that nine new companies have joined the initiative -- dog hunter, FengLian, ForgeRock®, INSTEON, MobilityLab, NETGEAR, Organic Response, Quanta Computer and VeriSign, Inc. With the addition of these new members the Alliance totals 80 companies and 12 sponsored members.

Hi-Q-LED”, a publicly funded project coordinated by Osram Opto Semiconductors, has developed LEDs with an extremely high efficacy and a reduced drop in efficacy

German's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)-funded joint project R2D2 will start in November 2014 aiming at the investigation of production-related processes and technologies for the manufacturing of flexible OLED.

Hubbell Lighting, a world leader in lighting innovation, announced today that Hubbell Building Automation (HBA) has become a Member of The Connected Lighting Alliance. The lighting world is on the eve of a paradigm shift towards wireless connectivity, and HBA’s industry-leading products offer the simplest and most convenient form of new lighting control.

Aluwave established a production site for its customized LED modules in China through a new company, Qingdao Aluwave Lighting Technology. The decision is based on the fact that several existing multinational customers with global operations have sought local deliveries to their assembly sites in China.

Apple and GT Advanced Technology (GTAT) settlement was unaffected by the publication of documents previously considered confidential, according to a Bloomberg report.

Many smart LED applications have emerged in recent years, and the latest addition BeOn, which integrates smart lighting with home security is making the rounds on the Internet.

Royal Philips and Schréder S.A. announced that they have signed a settlement agreement which ends the pending litigation in the LED lighting field.

 Quantum Materials Corp (OTCQB:QTMM) today announced it has signed an agreement with STAR Park that will quadruple the Company's Quantum Dot production space when the new state-of-the-art lab and offices are completed on or before June 2015. The Company is also recruiting to double its scientific staff effective January 2015.

Belkin International®, a leading Internet of Things company, and Technical Consumer Products, Inc. (TCP), a leader in energy-efficient lighting innovations, today announced a relationship that will include WeMo® home automation support to the TCP lineup of LED lighting solutions. TCP and Belkin have come together to provide TCP light bulbs for home wireless networks where select retailers specify the Belkin WeMo ecosystem of home automation products.

Smart lighting emerged in recent years as a promising technology that has attracted investments from many institutes and LED companies, but further R&D is required before the technology can become truly human centric, said Pei-Ting Chou, Manager, Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories, ITRI, at LEDforum 2014, which was held on Oct. 24, 2014 in Taipei, Taiwan.

Increasing workforce wages and commercial real estate rental fees in main cities of China has led to the emergence of e-commerce, which has the upside of saving about 60% of operating cost. The importance o the E-commerce trend in China can no longer be ignored. In 2013, online shopping accounted to approximately US $300 billion of e-commerce market in China, and is estimated to reach US $445 billion this year. China’s lighting e-commerce business models are gradually shifting from Customer-to-Customer (C2C) to Business-to-Customer (B2C), according to Analyst Figo Wang of EnergyTrend, a division of global market intelligence firm Trendforce, while attending LEDforum 2014 held in Taipei, Taiwan, on Oct. 24 2014.

Improvements in lighting technology for light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs have increased lighting efficiency, or efficacy, as well as color quality. In September of this year, several manufacturers released ENERGY STAR®-qualified bulbs surpassing 100 lumens per watt. For comparison, traditional incandescent bulbs, which do not meet current light bulb efficiency standards and are no longer sold, provide 13 to 18 lumens per watt.

Governors and lawmakers in state capitals across the nation continue to take major steps to lower energy costs, reduce pollution, and save consumers money by increasing their states’ energy efficiency, according to the findings of the 8th edition of the State Energy Efficiency Scorecard released today by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

Orion Energy Systems, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance, energy-efficient lighting platforms, today announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 second quarter and first half ended September 30, 2014.

SYLVANIA Automotive Lighting ushers in a new era of vehicle lighting with the expansion of the SYLVANIA ZEVOTM Automotive LED Lighting line. SYLVANIA ZEVO products offer the customized style and signature look of LED technology on luxury vehicles to the aftermarket.