Nichia Warns of Red-Emitting Phosphors that Infringe its Patents
Source/Type:  LIGHTimes Online - News - Staff reports

Author: LIGHTimes News Staff

June 8, 2010... Nichia has issued a public warning about patent infringement that the company has found of its patents regarding phosphors that emit red light. Nichia points out that it has many (jointly-owned patent) applications in Japan, USA, Europe, China, Korea, and Taiwan concerning these particular phosphors represented by the general formula of CaAlSiN3:Eu These relate to CASN phosphor, S-CASN phosphor, and LEDs using these phosphors. The company lists 15 Japanese, US, and European, patents related to the specific phosphor formulations.

Nichia says it has never licensed any of these patents to others. Despite this, Nichia says its CASN phosphor and S-CASN phosphor have been manufactured in large quantities without its authority, and LEDs using these phosphors also have been manufactured in large quantities. Nichia then said it expects that these patents will be respected.

Presumably, the company found products from another company that utilize the same phosphor formulation to emit red light. Nichia did not divulge whose products were allegedly infringing its red emitting phosphor patents.

Nichia's list of relevant patents includes: JP4414821, JP4415065, JP4422653, JP4511849, JP4511885, US7252788, US7273568, US7432647, US7476337, US7476338, EP1568753, EP1630219 (As of 2010/6/7).

See the Current Industry News Summary
See this article in its orginal context, with the other current news from the same week

All site format, content and technology copyright 2001-2008 by CompoundSemi Online, Inc.
Subject to recognized fair use copyright standards, reproduction in whole or part, by other than authorized clients, is prohibited. Commercial search engines are authorized for all site links. Links for any other commercial purpose are limited to the home and events pages unless you are a client of Solid State Lighting Net or CompoundSemi Online, Inc. Static links to news articles, suitable for search engines and newsfeeds (attribution required for use in news feeds), can be found at http://www.solidstatelighting.net/lightimes/searcharchive/.