LED Phosphor Intellectual Property (IP) LED Phosphors and Down-Converters Patent Investigation Report

News provided by

Apr 04, 2014, 06:54 ET

DUBLIN, April 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets Logo. (PRNewsFoto/PR NEWSWIRE EUROPE)

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/h9566z/led_phosphor) has announced the addition of the "LED Phosphor Intellectual Property (IP) LED Phosphors and Down-Converters Patent Investigation Report" report to their offering.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 )

The first commercial GaN-based blue LEDs were produced in Japan in the mid 90's after researchers Shuji Nakamura at Nichia and Professor Akasaki at Nagoya University (IP assigned to Toyoda Gosei) succeeded in removing some of the major remaining roadblocks associated with this technology (p-doping, epitaxy quality).

Quickly leveraging on this success, some fundamental patents describing the use of a blue LED combined with a phosphor to produce white LEDs were filed by Nichia, Osram, ATMI and others. Those fundamental patents were rapidly followed by a fast growing number of applications through 2005 as an increasing number of companies started to compete in the LED market and new applications in cell phone, laptop and LCD TV display, and general lighting were being addressed.

Phosphor IP is a major force in the LED industry. With more than 40 litigation cases, it is also used as leverage by companies which have negotiated close to 70 licensing and supply agreements to date. It can also be argued that in the first half of the 2000 decade, the strict enforcement and lack of license grants for some fundamental IP related to the design and manufacturing of white LEDs might also have slowed down the progress of the industry by preventing more efficient competition that would allow prices to decrease.

The report identifies the key players with the most relevant IP. It provides an overview, of phosphor related IP litigation and licensing, that has shaped the industry since the mid 90s, as well as a detailed analysis for the major players involved.

A vast number of relevant patents

Our search strategy combines automated and manual screenings that have led to the selection of more than 4,500 relevant patent families. Those have been segmented by type (composition patent or phosphor configuration patents) and organized in various technology segments that are analyzed in detail: garnets, silicates, nitrides and oxynitrides, quantum dots. The report also includes a special focus on the emerging LED phosphor IP in China.

For each segment, the report provides a detailed analysis including the time evolution of patent filings, identification of the key players, collaborations and citation networks, as well as the identification of the key patents based-on citation and impacts in litigations.

The report also includes a companion excel database with all patents of the company profiled in the report. This database includes abstracts and hyperlinks to the original documents and allows multi-criteria searches (patent publication number, priority date, title, applicants, technological segments)

Key Topics Covered:

Introduction

1. Executive Summary

2. Overview of the LED industry

3. LED phosphor market overview

4. IP Landscape overview

5. Analysis of technology segments

6. Focus on China

7. Litigation and licensing landscape

8. Focus on key players

9. CREE

10. Denka (Denki Kagaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha)

11. General Electric / Gelcore (Lumination) / GE Lighting

12. Intematix

13. LG

14. Mitsubishi (Mitsubishi Cable + Mitsubishi Chemical)

15. Nichia

16. NIMS (National Institute for Materials Science)

17. OSRAM

18. Philips

19. Samsung (Samsung Led - Samsung Electro Mechanics - Samsung Electronics)

20. Seoul Semiconductor

21. Toyoda Gosei

22. Others: Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic, Sumitomo