It’s reported that LED luminaire manufacturers can now use key components from Osram without having to pay license fees to Philips because Osram has acquired special rights from Philips.
Recently, Luminaire manufacturers are therefore released from the costs resulting from the LED luminaire license program published by Philips. The special rights relate not only to patents held by Philips but also to patents held by Color Kinetics and TIR Systems which were acquired by Philips last year. The compensatory payment – which both parties have agreed not to divulge – will be partially offset by Osram by selling rights to its own patents. This agreement will give the market for LED-based lighting a further boost.
Martin Goetzeler, CEO of Osram said “Thanks to this agreement, Osram key components provide our customers with unique opportunities. It stimulates new possibilities for the lighting market and, like Philips, we will accelerate the development of this market.”
The LED components are based to a large extent on chips fabricated in Osram’s highly advanced factories in Regensburg and Penang/Malaysia, and this is an area in which Osram itself has a leading patent portfolio.
About Osram
Osram is part of the Industry sector of Siemens and one of the two leading lighting manufacturers in the world. Sales in the 2007 fiscal year totaled 4.7 billion euros, 88 percent of which came from outside Germany. Osram is a high-tech company in the lighting sector. Around 60 percent of sales comes from energy-efficient products. This global player employs more than 41,000 people worldwide, supplies customers in some 150 countries and has 48 production facilities in 17 countries.
