Second LED distributor yields to Osram
According to LED manufacturer Osram Opto Semiconductors, a second distributor has decided not to import or market products that are alleged to infringe the German company s intellectual property.
Osram says that the declaration from American Microsemiconductor, which is based in Madison, US, relates in particular to products supplied by the Malaysian company Dominant Semiconductors.
In June this year, Osram filed a lawsuit with the International Trade Commission over Dominant s alleged infringement of patent rights concerning two aspects of LED manufacturing.
Dominant replied with a counterclaim of its own two months later.
The first alleged infringement concerns the conversion of blue light from an InGaN LED into white light through the use of a phosphor. These one-chip white LEDs are widely used to backlight displays in cell phone handsets and automotive dashboards.
The second area of contention concerns the design of electrical connections for high-power LEDs used mainly in automotive applications.
American Microsemiconductor is the second US distributor, after American Opto Plus, to bow to Osram s pressure on intellectual property.
Osram has licensed its technology to a number of major LED manufacturers, including Nichia and Rohm in Japan, Vishay in the US, and Everlight and Lite-On in Taiwan.
Osram Opto s managing director Rüdiger Müller added that another Taiwan-based company has also given recent reassurance that it would only use Osram s licensed products and would not risk infringement by manufacturing.
"The agreements between Osram and the two US distributors, and in particular between Osram and the Taiwanese companies, show that infringement of property rights is no longer seen throughout the world as a trivial offence," said Müller.
