News: LEDs
21 October 2022
Lowe’s LED filament bulbs ruled to infringe EPISTAR patents
On 4 October, in ‘EPISTAR Corp versus Lowe’s Home Centers LLC’, the United States District Court of the Central District of California issued its post-trial decision that confirmed the jury verdict that Lowe’s Home Centers’ LED filament bulbs infringed three patents of EPISTAR of Hsinchu, Taiwan (a subsidiary of Ennostar Inc) and rejected Lowe’s arguments that challenged the validity of the EPISTAR patents.
The three EPISTAR patents were (1) US Patent No. 7,560,738 (‘Light-Emitting Diode Array Having An Adhesive Layer’), (2) US Patent No. 8,492,780 (‘Light-Emitting Device And Manufacturing Method Thereof’), and (3) US Patent No. 6,346,771 (‘High Power LED Lamp’).
In its decision, the court specifically upheld the jury finding that Lowe’s LED filament bulbs manufactured by Zhejiang Yankon Group Co Ltd infringed claims 1-3 and 8 of the ‘738 Patent, claims 1, 3 and 7 of the ’780 Patent and claim 38 of the ’771 Patent.
The court post-trial decision further confirmed that each of the claims infringed by Lowe’s were valid over the prior art.
EPISTAR says that it has invested millions of dollars in the R&D of LED technologies that has led to a patent portfolio consisting of more than 4000 issued patents and pending patent applications. This investment has laid the foundation of LED lighting technologies that have empowered products including the LED filament bulb at issue in this case. “Innovation is extremely important to the industry and should be respected and awarded fairly to drive the evolution of technology,” says the firm. EPISTAR adds that it will continue its enforcement activities against those using its technology without authorization.
