Epistar claims moral victory in Lumileds patent case
An initial ruling by the US International Trade Commission (USITC) has decided that Taiwan-based Epistar is infringing a patent owned by Philips Lumileds.
USITC judge Sydney Harris ruled that metal-bond AlGaInP LEDs made by United Epitaxy Company, which is now part of Epistar, infringe Lumileds 5,008,718 patent.
However, when Lumileds filed its claim with the USITC back in November 2005, it also accused Epistar of patent infringement over other AlGaInP products based on omnidirectional mirror adhesion (OMA) and glue-bond chips.
Epistar said: "The [judge] found that the Epistar OMA and glue-bond LEDs do not directly or indirectly infringe any of the asserted claims of the three patents."
The Taiwanese firm adds that the adverse ruling over metal-bond LEDs will have little impact on its business anyway: "Epistar is ready to go into production with a new generation of metal-bond series LEDs, which Epistar believes will obviate the issues with the 718 patent altogether."
"Even if the USITC adopts Judge Harris s infringement finding regarding metal-bond LEDs, the impact on Epistar will be negligible."
Lumileds appears to dispute that sentiment, and is pushing for the USITC to award damages relating to what it sees as "willful" infringement of the 718 patent.
Lumileds is still seeking an order from the USITC to prohibit imports of both the LEDs in question, and any products featuring them, to the US.
However, Epistar says that it will continue to petition for the USITC to reject the initial ruling of infringement over metal-bond LEDs, as it maintains that this finding was based on incorrect interpretations of two claims within the 718 patent.
The final determination from the USITC, which should settle the damages claim, is not expected until May 8, 2007.
