LED applications have opened an explosive market in horticulture lighting. Nichia, the Japanese LED giant, set up a laboratorial plant factory in Shanghai to test how different LED light sources can alter the ingredients of plants to create medicinal effects. 

Nichia considered that in 2H18, the competition between LED makers will still go on due to the excess capacity of LED backlight and the weak market demands in the past two quarters. As the prices of LED chips and packaging has been down for years, there might be more acquisitions between corporates and some collapses for small and medium sized manufacturers. Generally speaking, 2018 is a tough year for the LED industry. 

Nichia, the leading LED Company based in Japan, held a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan and shared its state-of-the-art lighting technologies in automotive, medical, and horticultural applications. 

LED makers have been announcing their progress of Mini LED before reaching the final goal, Micro LED. Manufacturers in Taiwan and China started to ship Mini LED products from the second half of 2018. Nichia, the Japanese LED giant, also reported that it has completed the development process of Mini LED and is ready to mass produce related products that will be released by the end of the year.

Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) and Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. and L G Sourcing, Inc. have reached a settlement in the cases titled Nichia Corporation v. Lowe’s Companies, Inc. et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-00613-JRG (filed in the Eastern Districts of Texas); Nichia Corporation v. Lowe’s Companies, Inc. et al., Case No. 5:16-cv-00142-MOC-DSC (filed in the Western District of North Carolina); and Nichia Corporation v. Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-01455-JRG (filed in the Eastern Districts of Texas), mutually agreeing to dismissal of the lawsuits. While the terms of the agreement are confidential, both parties are pleased with the result. Nichia’s suits against VIZIO(1)(2)(3) and Feit(4)(5) in the Central District of California remain ongoing.

On May 18, 2018, Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against ASUS JAPAN Inc., a Japanese affiliate of Taiwanese ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (“ASUS”), and SYNNEX Infotec Corporation, a distributor of ASUS JAPAN Inc., seeking a compensation for damages.

Tokushima, Japan – April 25, 2018 - Nichia Corporation is proud to introduce discrete color options in its Direct Mountable Chip series, a similar technology to the industry’s Chip Scale Package (CSP).  Nichia’s Direct Mountable Chip color lineup, consisting of Royal Blue, Green, Amber and Red, along with its previously released white options, enables lighting customers to take advantage of Nichia’s unique Direct Mountable Chip technology in a wide range of applications.

Nichia and OSRAM emphasize the significance of intellectual property (IP) in their business fields and announce their intention to expand the license co-operation. Nichia Corporation and OSRAM GmbH have entered into patent cross license agreements in 2002 and 2010. As a result, both companies are allowed to use each other’s patents licensed under the respective agreement in its own nitride-based semiconductor products such as blue, green, and white LED and laser components. Hiroyoshi Ogawa, President of Nichia Corporation and Aldo Kamper, CEO of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors met at the Light+Building in Frankfurt, Germany, and expressed their wish to expand and strengthen the license co-operation.

Future Lighting Solutions announces the immediate availability of Optisolis from Nichia, the most advanced Ultra-High Color Rendering white LED the world has ever seen.

Since the birth of human, light (AKARI) has been indispensable. Light generates such a strong feeling, it has kept people throughout history longing for lighting that is most similar to that of natural daylight or fire. To further improve the overall quality of light as "AKARI”, Nichia Corporation has developed an Ultra-High Color Rendering white LED named Optisolis. 

Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK) and Nichia on Oct. 11 have reached a basic agreement to build a wide-ranging collaborative framework leveraging the two companies’ proprietary optical and other technologies.

For a long time, Nichia, Osram Opto., Cree, Toyota Gosei and Lumileds have jointly shaped an enormous and powerful patent shield with cross-license agreements within the world LED industry and the five lighting goliaths have been charging, more or less, whoever tried to sell LED products abroad. However, as those patents are about to expire, Taiwan- and Korea-based Companies rise with their new patents and the expansion of Chinese businesses is posing threats, the industry is slowing transitioning away from the old oligopoly.

Nichia, the noted Japan-based LED firm, on 29th June filed a lawsuit with the Düsseldorf District Court in Germany against Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC Corp. and e-commerce solution provider Digital River Ireland Ltd., accusing them of the infringement of its LED patent.

The court rendered the judgment in favor of Nichia's claims for permanent injunction, also rendering of accounts and damages. Furthermore, the court confirmed Nichia's claim for recall of the accused products from the commercial customers and destruction of the accused products being owned or in possession by WOFI. The judgment is not final and can be appealed.

On April 25, 2017, the Düsseldorf District Court in Germany has rendered judgments in favor of Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) maintaining three preliminary injunctions against Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. (“Everlight”) for infringement of Nichia’s YAG patent EP 936 682 (DE 697 02 929). The preliminary injunctions concern the white LED products “334-15/X1C5-1QSA”, „334-15/T2C2-1TVB“ and „XI3535-KT577J1-03201-000P“ manufactured by Everlight and distributed in Germany.

On April, 25, 2017, a Taiwanese LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. (“Everlight”) issued a press release, announcing that it had filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Tokyo District Court against Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) and other companies.

According to Japanese media Nikkei, major LED manufacturer Nichia Corporation plans to invest around 22 billion Japanese yen (about US$197 million) by the end of 2020 to build a new laser diode (LD) factory at its current production base. LD can be used as a light source for projectors, endoscopy and headlights. The Japanese LED maker’s goal is to increase current LD production capacity by at least three-fold by 2020. 

Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) announces that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed a district court decision holding that Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. and Everlight Americas, Inc. (collectively, “Everlight”) have infringed three Nichia patents.

EVERLIGHT Electronics Co., Ltd. on April 25, 2017 filed its complaints with Tokyo District Court against Nichia Corporation, Citizen Electronics Co., Ltd. and Daiko Electronics Co., Ltd. for patent infringement.

Japanese LED giant Nichia Corporation recently announced that the Düsseldorf Court of Appeal in Germany has confirmed that four white LED products by Taiwanese LED manufacturer Harvatek Corporation infringe Nichia’s YAG Patent EP 0 936 682 (DE 697 02 929).

On February 22, 2017, Nichia Corporation (“Nichia“) filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany at the District Court Düsseldorf against the Germany-based distributor EBV Elektronik GmbH & Co. KG and EBV Management GmbH (both “EBV“).

With judgment of January 20, 2017 (docket number I-2 U 41/12), the Düsseldorf Court of Appeal in Germany has confirmed the infringement of YAG Patent EP 0 936 682 (DE 697 02 929) of Nichia Corporation (“Nichia“) by Taiwanese LED manufacturer Harvatek Corporation (“Harvatek”) concerning four accused white LED products.

As reported in a prior press release, in its judgement of December 22, 2016 (docket number I-15 U 31/14), the Düsseldorf Court of Appeal in Germany has confirmed the infringement as already found at court in first instance of YAG Patent EP 0 936 682 (DE 697 02 929) of Nichia Corporation ("Nichia") by Taiwanese LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. and its German subsidiary Everlight Electronics Europe GmbH (both "Everlight") concerning six accused white LED products. The further appeal of the Everlight affecting judgement was not allowed by the Düsseldorf Court of Appeal. Everlight has filed in the meantime against this decision a request with the Federal Court of Justice (docket number X ZR 5/17) to allow such further appeal.

As reported in a prior press release, on September 29, 2016, the Düsseldorf District Court in Germany had granted a preliminary injunction against Mouser Electronics Inc. ("Mouser") based on a request of Nichia Corporation ("Nichia"). The court admitted Nichia's arguments that the white LED product "334-15/X1C5-1QSA" manufactured by Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. and distributed by Mouser in Germany infringes Nichia's YAG patent EP 936 682 (DE 697 02 929).

Another bitter litigation between two noted LED manufacturers has come to an end. The Intellectual Property High Court of Japan (IPHC) announced on 18th of Jan, 2017 a dismissal of the lawsuit Everlight filed to call for injunctions against Nichia based on the Japanese Unfair Competition Act.

Nichia announced Tuesday that it had won another LED patent infringement suit against Everlight in Dusseldorf Court in Germany, and filed another four patent suits against Chinese LCD TV manufacturer TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings, LED retailers Lowe’s Hone, and LED distributors L G Sourcing and Feit Electric. Feit Electric is the most recent plaintiff to be included in the Japanese LED manufacturers list of companies where it is seeking for injunctions that prohibit the sale and distribution of infringing products, but there has not been much changes in its patent suit strategy. The company is following a trajectory similar to 2016 in its patent suit approach. LEDinside also estimates Feit Electric might cave into arriving a settlement in a similar way that it did with Cree in 2016.

On Dec. 27, 2016, Nichia Corporation ("Nichia") filed four patent infringement lawsuits in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The defendants in the lawsuits are (1) TTE Technology, a US-based LCD TV distributor, and its parent company, TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings Limited, a Chinese manufacturer of LCD TVs; (2) VIZIO, a US-based LCD TV maker; (3) Lowe’s Home Center LLC (“Lowe’s”), a US-based retailer of LED lighting and other products, and Lowe’s affiliated U.S. distributor, L G Sourcing, Inc.; and (4) Feit Electric Company, Inc., a US-based LED lighting manufacturer and distributor. In these lawsuits, Nichia asserts that defendants have infringed Nichia’s U.S. Patent No. 9,490,411. Nichia seeks an injunction prohibiting the defendants’ sale and distribution of infringing products. Nichia also seeks damages for defendants’ infringement.

With judgment of Dec. 22, 2016 (docket number I-15 U 31/14), the Düsseldorf Court of Appeal in Germany has confirmed the infringement of YAG Patent EP 0 936 682 (DE 697 02 929) of Nichia Corporation (“Nichia“) by Taiwanese LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. and its German subsidiary Everlight Electronics Europe GmbH (both “Everlight“) concerning six accused white LED products.

Nichia a leader in LED technology, has officially launched their new 319A high power LED product series. The 319A series is available through Nichia Sales Offices, Future Lighting Solutions (FLS), a world-class leader and innovator in the distribution and marketing of solid-state lighting technologies, and other partner distributors.

On Dec. 19, 2016, Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against TAKIZUMI ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES CO., LTD. (“Takizumi”), a manufacturer and distributor of lighting fixtures, seeking an injunction and compensation for damages.