Everlight Electronics Co (億光電子), the nation’s top LED chip packager, yesterday said it was not surprised at the Japan Patent Office’s (JPO) ruling that Nichia Corp’s blue LED patent was “invalid,” adding that the company’s operations were not affected by the Japanese firm’s complaints.
“The JPO’s decision is entirely reasonable,” Everlight said in a statement posted on its Web site on Monday.
Everlight said it had on Monday received the JPO’s ruling on Nov. 12 that Nichia’s blue LED patent No. JP2780691 was “totally invalid.”
Everlight said it was the second of Nichia’s core patents to have been overturned, following the office’s ruling in May that the firm’s YAG white light LED patent No. JP3503139 was invalid.
Everlight chairman Robert Yeh (葉寅夫) described the ruling as an “unprecedented” success, adding that it would strengthen the company’s LED patent protection and sustain customers’ confidence in the firm.
Everlight’s shares opened at NT$38.65, but closed down 0.53 percent at NT$37.85 yesterday, underperforming the broader market, which rose 0.63 percent.
In related news, Lextar Electronics Corp (隆達電子), an LED manufacturing arm of AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), yesterday said that sales last month reached NT$780 million, down 8.77 percent from NT$855 million in October and 4.16 percent from NT$813 million in the same month last year.
Revenue in the first 11 months of the year was still up 11.2 percent to NT$9.3 billion.
Lextar said that since the current quarter is a slow season, the company is in a transition phase, developing new models to replace old ones.
LED chipmaker Unity Opto Technology Co (東貝光電) also reported that consolidated revenue for last month rose 10.7 percent from a year ago to NT$726.47 million.
Cumulative revenue in the January-November period was up 26.3 percent to NT$6.99 billion.
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