LED chip packager and tester Everlight Electronics Co (億光) on Thursday last week downplayed its latest setback in a series of long-running patent battles with Japan’s Nichia Corp.
The German Federal Patent court ruled in Nichia’s favor and confirmed the validity of the Japanese company’s YAG phosphor patent in the country.
Nichia is seeking an injunction and damages as it claims that Everlight’s white LED products infringed its patent.
The court has set the value in dispute at 7.3 million euros (US$8.5 million), market research Web site LEDinside reported last week.
Everlight said that the patent expired on July 29 last year, and the case, which is not final and can be appealed, would have no effect on its current product mix, the company said in a statement on Thursday last week.
The company expects the court to rule in its favor eventually, the statement said.
Everlight said that it has repeatedly come out victorious in court battles across the globe regarding the same family of patents.
Nichia’s case, launched in 2011 to invalidate Everlight’s YAG phosphor patent in Taiwan, was overruled by local authorities in 2016 and an appeal was overruled in April.
Everlight said that its 2012 non-infringement case against Nichia was upheld by a US patent court in 2015 and again in March last year following an appeal.
On Friday last week, the company’s shares closed flat at NT$31.8 in Taipei and have dropped 29.25 percent so far this year as the company struggles to boost revenue and earnings growth.
Earnings per share of NT$0.79 for the first half of this year were the lowest in the company’s history for the same period since 2012, while its first-half revenue fell 10.2 percent from the same period a year earlier, company data showed.
The company said that improving mini-LED business and a better mix of product lineups would boost revenue to show positive annual growth next year and profitability should rebound in the medium term.
“Everlight’s core profitability would bottom out in the first half, with automotive lighting, infrared applications and mini-LED the major growth drivers in the years ahead,” KGI Securities Investment Advisory Co (凱基投顧) analyst Jennifer Liang (梁姿嫺) said in a note on Friday last week.
“The company’s share price has corrected by 21.3 percent in the past three months,” she said.
“In the near term, we expect the stock to stabilize by receiving support from investors’ expectation of profitability recovery and the company’s high cash dividend payout ratio of up to 70 percent,” Liang said.
Taiwan will prioritize the development of silicon photonics by taking advantage of its strength in the semiconductor industry to build another shield to protect the local economy, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said yesterday. Speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee, Liu said Taiwan already has the artificial intelligence (AI) industry as a shield, after the semiconductor industry, to safeguard the country, and is looking at new unique fields to build more economic shields. While Taiwan will further strengthen its existing shields, over the longer term, the country is determined to focus on such potential segments as
UNCERTAINTY: Innolux activated a stringent supply chain management mechanism, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure optimal inventory levels for customers Flat-panel display makers AUO Corp (友達) and Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that about 12 to 20 percent of their display business is at risk of potential US tariffs and that they would relocate production or shipment destinations to mitigate the levies’ effects. US tariffs would have a direct impact of US$200 million on AUO’s revenue, company chairman Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday. That would make up about 12 percent of the company’s overall revenue. To cope with the tariff uncertainty, AUO plans to allocate its production to manufacturing facilities in
COLLABORATION: Given Taiwan’s key position in global supply chains, the US firm is discussing strategies with local partners and clients to deal with global uncertainties Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday said it is meeting with local ecosystem partners, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), to discuss strategies, including long-term manufacturing, to navigate uncertainties such as US tariffs, as Taiwan occupies an important position in global supply chains. AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) told reporters that Taiwan is an important part of the chip designer’s ecosystem and she is discussing with partners and customers in Taiwan to forge strong collaborations on different areas during this critical period. AMD has just become the first artificial-intelligence (AI) server chip customer of TSMC to utilize its advanced
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
RSS