LED makers deny patent links with rivals in Taiwan
Last year, Nichia licensed its white LED manufacturing technology to Citizen Electronics as well as reaching intellectual property agreements with its key rivals Osram Opto Semiconductors, Toyoda Gosei, Lumileds and Cree.
Toyoda Gosei s statement came in response to an article in the Taiwanese media. This claimed that Toyoda Gosei is negotiating with a Taiwanese LED lamp manufacturer over a technical collaboration including a license to Toyoda s white LED technology.
Toyoda Gosei flatly denied any such involvement, stating, "No patent license owned by Toyoda Gosei has ever been granted to any Taiwanese LED manufacturer. There is no fact, whatsoever, that Toyoda Gosei is negotiating with any such company in respect of the patent license owned by Toyoda Gosei."
Taiwan produced about one quarter of the estimated 3 billion chips manufactured worldwide during 2002, and this proportion looks set to continue. However, Taiwanese companies in general have a weaker intellectual property position than the leading players in Japan, the US and Europe.
Licensing would be a very attractive option to many Taiwanese firms in order to avoid patent-related restrictions that limit the available markets for some of their products.
