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Aug. 29, 2018

Nichia again succeeded in nullity lawsuit in Germany filed by Everlight regarding Nichia’s YAG Patent

With judgment dated July 19, 2018 (docket number 2 Ni 55/16 (EP)), the German Federal Patent Court fully confirmed the validity of the German part of Nichia’s YAG patent EP 936 682 (DE 697 02 929). As a consequence, the court completely rejected the nullity action of Everlight Electronics Europe GmbH (“Everlight Europe”), the German subsidiary of Taiwanese LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. (“Everlight Taiwan”). The judgment of the Federal Patent Court is not final and can be appealed.

Everlight Taiwan had already attacked Nichia and its YAG patent without success in a first nullity action which had also been fully dismissed by the German Federal Court of Justice with final judgment of August 16, 2016 ( docket number X ZR 96/14 ). Thus, with the new judgment of the Federal Patent Court of July 19, 2018 now, the validity of the German part of Nichia’s YAG patent has been confirmed for the second time.

The value in dispute for the nullity action was set by the Federal Patent Court to 7.3 million EUR. By that, the court significantly raised the value in dispute requested by Everlight Europe with 2.5 million EUR only. Again, this determination of the value of dispute is not final and can be appealed. The court reasoned the determination of the value in dispute by making reference to the importance of the validity of Nichia’s YAG patent for the respective, currently still pending infringement actions in Germany and to the total amount of the individual values in dispute of those infringement proceedings which are: Nichia vs Everlight Taiwan and Everlight Europe at the Federal Court of Justice (docket number X ZR 5/17), Nichia vs Everlight Taiwan and Everlight Europe at the Düsseldorf District Court (docket number 4b O 161/17), Nichia vs distributor EBV Elektronik GmbH & Co. KG and EBV Management GmbH at the Düsseldorf District Court (docket number 4b O 20/17), and Nichia vs WOFI Leuchten Wortmann & Filz GmbH, another German subsidiary of Everlight Taiwan, at the Düsseldorf Court of Appeal (docket number I-2 U 33/17).

Nichia seeks to protect its patents and other intellectual property rights and takes actions against alleged infringers in any country where appropriate and necessary.

  German version
  Chinese version (traditional)