Nitride settles UV-LED Patent Lawsuit in USA
QT-Brightek has agreed to respect Nitride’s patent and entered into a settlement and patent license agreement
Nitride Semiconductors, a maker of UV-LED technology, has filed complaints against Digi-Key Corporation, an electrical components distributor, in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, asserting infringement of Nitride’s UV-LED patent.
In the complaints, Nitride says that UV-LED products being supplied by various LED companies - such as American Opto Plus LED, Crystal IS, Kingbright Electronic, Luminus Device, and QT-Brightek - have been infringing Nitride’s UV-LED patent.
Further, Nitride has filed a complaint against Lite-On Technology and its affiliates in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, asserting infringement of Nitride’s UV-LED patent.
On June 18, 2021, Nitride has entered into a settlement and patent license agreement with QT-Brightek (headquartered in California) which provides that QT-Brightek does not dispute that its UV-LEDs infringe, and QT-Brightek has also agreed to respect Nitride’s patent.
As for other UV LED makers’ products, Nitride continues to pursue patent litigations in the Minnesota and Texas court.
Nitride is one of the earliest ground breakers in the field of UV-LEDs. With Shiro Sakai at Tokushima University, Nitride succeeded in developing highly efficient UV-LEDs as early as 2000.
To protect its UV-LED patented technology, Nitride initiated its patent enforcement campaign starting in 2017. By virtue of such efforts, a judgment was issued out of the US District Court for the Northern District of California in favour of Nitride and against RayVio in 2020, who infringed Nitride’s UV-LED patent. That judgment was also in Nitride’s favour with respect to the validity of its patent. The US Patent & Trademark Office has also confirmed the validity of the key claims of Nitride’s patent in its final judgment on an Inter Parte Review case filed by RayVio.
