Epistar Corp (晶元光電), a maker of light-emitting diodes, won its appeal of a patent-infringement case in which Royal Philips Electronics NV’s Lumileds unit was trying to block its chips from the US market.
An appeals court ordered the US International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington to consider the validity of a patent owned by Philips, Europe’s largest consumer-electronics maker.
The court lifted an import ban that had been imposed on chips made by the Hsinchu-based Epistar.
LED CHIPS
The dispute is over light-emitting diode, or LED, chips that are used in traffic signals and brake lights.
The Lumileds invention is for a transparent layer that provides a brighter light.
Epistar had been barred from challenging the validity of the patent because of earlier settlements involving different products made by Epistar and a company that was bought by Epistar.
NEW CLAIMS
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that Epistar had reserved the right to challenge the patent if there were new infringement claims.
If, after a review of the patent, the ITC decides to reimpose the ban, the block must be limited to Epistar chips and can’t be extended to products that include the chips and are made by companies that weren’t part of the case, the Federal Circuit ruled.
Philips Lumileds, based in San Jose, California, is the world’s biggest maker of power LEDs used in cars, cameras and general lighting. Its parent company, Royal Philips, is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
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