Sidley Announces Settlement of Patent Infringement Claims Against LED Manufacturer

Erik Sine · March 13, 2008

March 10, 2008 11:43 AM Eastern Daylight Time

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sidley Austin LLP announced today that firm client Professor Gertrude Neumark Rothschild has settled her patent infringement action against Philips Lumileds. The terms of the settlement are undisclosed. The action was brought in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Sidley team consisted of James D. Zirin and Ashe Puri, partner and associate respectively. Peter Toren of Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP served as co-counsel.

On June 24, 2005, Professor Neumark commenced the action alleging that Philips Lumileds had infringed U.S. Patent No. 4,904,618, “Process for Doping Crystals of Wide Band Gap Semiconductors,” and U.S. Patent No. 5,252,499, “Wide Band-Gap Semiconductors Having Low Bipolar Resistivity and Method of Formation” through the unauthorized manufacture, importation, use, sale and/or offer for sale of light emitting diodes (“LEDs”) and laser diode created using the processes described and claimed in each of these patents. LEDs are semiconductor diodes which convert electricity into light. Semiconductors are materials with resistivities in the range between metals and insulators, in which the electrical charge carrier concentration increases with increasing temperature over a given temperature range. Despite the recognized potential of LEDs, their commercial use was initially limited because it was not commercially feasible to produce LEDs in blue, green and other high spectral ranges. Through the process claimed in Professor Neumark’s patents, it has become commercially feasible to produce such LEDs, and they have increasingly gained general acceptance as a superior lighting source.

Professor Neumark is one of the world’s foremost experts on doping wide band-gap semiconductors. During research work at Columbia University, she conceived of the doping process that has had a significant impact on the quality of consumer products. In addition to the blue laser, her patented processes to create blue and ultraviolet LEDs are now used in a large number of products ranging from flat screen TVs, computers, traffic lights, instrument panels, as the background color for mobile-phone screens, in multicolor displays and in numerous other lighting applications.

Professor Neumark is Howe Professor Emerita of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor Emerita of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics and a Special Research Scientist, Columbia University, New York, New York, from where she also received her Ph.D in chemistry in 1949. She was the first woman to hold a named Chair in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University.

Sidley Austin LLP is one of the world's largest full-service law firms, with more than 1800 lawyers practicing in 16 U.S. and international cities including Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. Every year since 2003, Sidley has been named to Legal Business’ Global Elite, their designation for "the 15 finest law firms in the world." BTI, a Boston-based consulting and research firm, has named Sidley to their Client Service Hall of Fame as one of only two law firms to rank in the Client Service Top 10 for seven years in a row.

Fred · March 19, 2008

Strange- I used to get weekly emails from Manuel Lynch bragging about how Permlight was suing the pants off of somebody. Now he is spending the same amount of time bad mouthing Permlight, and here is a posting about-you guessed it- a lawsuit. Appears to be from someone else, but who knows.

Guys, all this suing and bad mouthing does NOT inspire confidence in your companies or products. It makes me look for someone else to buy from. Just a thought.

BTW: I'd be very very careful about posting past due bills on a forum. Might want to check with a lawyer before you go posting that kind of stuff.

Erik Sine · March 19, 2008

Fred,

This is probably the only place to get unbiased news and information and discussion on

Products
Manufacturers
Services
Associations
Magazine Articles
etc

I don't think you can get this anywhere else.

As for posting of bills, I do so to show proof to all who might think about doing business with such a service and not trying to flame a company. If it were not for a discussion board such as this I would still be missing or waiting on thousands, and thousands of dollars owed to me. Without such a place for open discussion I would not have gotten paid. If someone wants to sue me because I posted their bill, I welcome them, it will make my day in court go that much quicker.

But if you do go though this board you will find many upon many threads of helpful information, sure some might seem negative, but it sure can help you out as a sign company from making a bad decision.

BTW- Welcome to the board Fred