News: LEDs
11 March 2025
Nichia wins German patent infringement lawsuits concerning Dominant LEDs
On 13 and 21 January, respectively, the Munich District Court of Germany ruled in favor of Nichia Corp of Tokushima, Japan — the world’s largest gallium nitride (GaN)-based light-emitting diode/laser diode (LED/LD) manufacturer and inventor of high-brightness blue and white LEDs — in two patent infringement lawsuits and issued two acknowledgment judgments in relation to Nichia’s claims for patent infringement by certain automotive LED products of Malaysia-based LED manufacturer Dominant Opto Technologies Sdn Bhd.
The lawsuits relate to Nichia's patents EP2216834 and EP3267494 protecting core technology utilized in automotive lighting and backlighting to achieve high luminance, high reliability, and high efficiency.
EP2216834 relates to chip-scale package (CSP) products, an essential technology for high-luminance LEDs. This technology is of particular importance in the automotive headlight and exterior lighting markets (DRL daytime running lights, indicators etc), where high-luminance LEDs are especially required.
EP3267494 relates to LEDs that achieve high reliability and high efficiency in manufacturing and represent an important technology in the automotive interior lighting and backlighting market where highly reliable LEDs are especially required.
The Munich District Court issued the two acknowledgment judgments in relation to Nichia's claims for patent infringement by two Dominant LEDs, and ordered the defendant Endrich Bauelemente Vertriebs GmbH (a German electronic components distributor that sold these products) to cease the sales, to recall and to destroy the products, to provide information and rendering account, and to compensate Nichia for damages in relation to these products:
Nichia says that its claims are fully confirmed by the acknowledgment judgments of the Munich District Court. The decisions are final and cannot be appealed.
Nichia also holds family patents in the following countries:
- EP2216834: Japan, USA, UK, France, Italy, Netherlands, China, India, Taiwan, Korea, and Russia;
- EP3267494: Japan, USA, Germany, UK, France, Netherlands, China, India, Taiwan, Korea, and Brazil.
Nichia launches chip-scale LED with horizontal light distribution
