On July 15, 2021, Nichia Corporation (“Nichia“) initiated damage compensation proceedings at the Düsseldorf District Court against WOFI Leuchten Wortmann & Filz GmbH (“WOFI”), based on a final judgment of the Düsseldorf District Court (docket number 4b O 132/16) finding infringement of Nichia’s YAG patent EP 936 682 (DE 697 02 929) by WOFI. WOFI is a manufacturer of residential lighting products and a German subsidiary of Taiwanese LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd..
WOFI initially alleged that the scope of the damage compensation shall be limited to the 12 product types explicitly cited in this final judgment, and refused to render account information for additional product types. In view of this refusal, Nichia initiated enforcement proceedings at court which confirmed Nichia’s legal view. WOFI rendered account information regarding 184 product types in total.
Nichia is of the opinion that a reasonable damage award should amount to 4.5 million EUR. This amount is based on the account information rendered by WOFI for the 184 product types. Since WOFI denied such damage award, Nichia now started the court proceedings against WOFI.
Nichia seeks to protect its patents and other intellectual property rights and takes actions against alleged infringers in any country where appropriate and necessary.