- News
21 March 2018
Osram and Nichia to expand nitride LED and laser IP cooperation
© Semiconductor Today Magazine / Juno PublishiPicture: Disco’s DAL7440 KABRA laser saw.
At the Light+Building 2018 show in Frankfurt, Germany (18-23 March), Aldo Kamper, CEO of Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH of Regensburg, Germany, and Hiroyoshi Ogawa, president of Japan’s Nichia Corp, announced a strengthening of the two firms’ cooperation on licensing.
Osram GmbH of Munich, Germany and Japan’s Nichia Corp first entered into patent cross-license agreements in 2002 and 2010, allowing the firms to use each other’s patents in their own nitride-based semiconductor products such as blue, green and white LED and laser components.
Ogawa and Kamper share the view that much has happened in the industry since the companies signed the last license agreement in 2010. “To further advance LED and laser technology, Nichia and Osram have spent, in total, more than €2.5bn in research and development since 2011,” notes Kamper. The two firms have now agreed to enter into negotiations for a cross license covering about 7000 new patent applications including about 2000 granted patents from Nichia and Osram, covering automotive, general lighting, LCD backlights, display, medical and industrial applications and a full range of optoelectronics products.
“On all levels of the value chain from semiconductor epitaxy to phosphor material, packaging and further downstream technologies, significant progress has been made in the past eight years and protected by a variety of new patents on both sides,” says Ogawa. To cover their technological achievements in all existing as well as emerging application areas for optoelectronics products and technologies, Osram and Nichia will discuss a cross license that spanning the many additional patents based on post-2010 inventions. “Our companies will be able to leverage each other’s technological advancements, while both companies’ customers will benefit from an industry-leading protection in IP-related matters,” says Kamper.
©2006-2020
Juno Publishing and Media Solutions Ltd. All rights reserved. Semiconductor
Today and the editorial material contained within it and related media is
the copyright of Juno Publishing and Media Solutions Ltd. Reproduction in
whole or part without permission from Juno Publishing and Media Solutions
Ltd is forbidden. In most cases, permission will be granted, if the magazine
and publisher are acknowledged.