AOC International of Europe, an LED display manufacturer has entered into a patent settlement agreement with Tridonic Jennersdorf GmbH, a subsidiary of Tridonic GmbH & Co KG, Dornbirn and therefore part of the Zumtobel Group. The agreement relates to patent litigation that Tridonic originally brought against AOC International (Europe) B.V. and AOC International (Europe) GmbH at the Mannheim District Court in Germany. The original lawsuit alleged infringement of B.O.S.E. Consortium patent EP 1 352 431 B1.
The B.O.S.E. Consortium is made up of Tridonic Jennersdorf GmbH, Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. in Japan, along with Leuchtstoffwerk Breitungen GmbH and Litec GbR in Germany. The B.O.S.E. Consortium owns patents related to the use of blue LEDs to generate white light with a yellow, silicate-based phosphor light converter.
According to Tridonic and the B.O.S.E. Consortium, the silicate-based white LED technology enables fabrication of white LEDs with higher color accuracy and increased brightness.
Tridonic says that preferred applications for white emitting LEDs fabricated with a blue LED and a silicate phosphor include display products such as smartphones, notebooks and navigation systems.
The B.O.S.E. Consortium offers two different licensing models to provide this white light LED technology to the LED industry. The consortium offers an application license for which allows the use of the white light LED technology and a material license, which allows for the production and sale of the relevant luminescent materials.
The four members of the B.O.S.E. Consortium include Tridonic Jennersdorf GmbH of Germany, Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd of Japan, along with Leuchtstoffwerk Breitungen GmbH and Litec GbR of Germany. The consortium holds basic patents for a technology to generate white light using blue LEDs and yellow silicate phosphors.
AOC stated that it “fully respects and recognizes the patents and patent applications held by B.O.S.E. Consortium, in particular, the European Patent EP 1 352 431 B1.” According to the application license, AOC will be allowed to use the white emitting LED technology in its display products.
The B.O.S.E. consortium has reportedly already granted an application license allowing usage of its white emitting LED technology to over 40 LED manufacturers worldwide.
