Osram Agrees Royalty Bearing Patent License with Harvatek
Source/Type: Press Releases - As issued by company

November 18, 2004... Osram GmbH, Munich, and Havatek Corporation, Taipei, today signed a patent license contract. Osram has granted a royalty bearing license to manufacture and sell white LEDs with conversion technology, for which Osran holds patents. Typical applications include backlighting for mobile phone and car radio displays.

Conversion technology for LEDs was developed by the Osram Opto Semiconductors a subsidiary of Osram GmbH, Munich. It enables white LEDs to be produced using blue emitting InGaN (Indium Gallium Nitride) based chips and a suitable fluorescent converter.

"Over the years, our subsidiary has built up a very strong position and we have a good deal of intellectual property at our disposal", explains Gerd Pokorny, Senior Vice President of Osram GmbH, Munich. The company had signed patent contracts before with Nichia, Rohm, Everlight, Lite-On, Vishay and Samsung Electrics. All these companies have recognized that Osram has many patents worldwide covering several aspects of the technology used in white LEDs, e. g. the following patents and its foreign counterparts:

US 6,576,930 conversion principle
US 6,812,500 silicone + converter
US 6,613,247 particle size
EP 907969 conversion principle (only restricted)
EP 862794 particle size

"In this area Osram vigorously enforces its patent rights against infringing products as we have knowledge about many non-licensed producers. Currently we have filed a lawsuit with the ITC (International Trade Commission) in Washington against Dominant Semiconductors Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia, for infringement of our patent rights. Additional lawsuits against other companies who do not respect Osram's intellectual property rights will follow soon. Some of these companies are located in Taiwan", says Pokorny.

About Osram
Osram is one of the two largest lighting manufacturers in the world. Sales in the year ending September 2004 totalled EUR 4.2 billion, 88 percent of which outside Germany. Osram has developed from a classic light bulb manufacturer into a high-tech company in the lighting industry. Around 40 percent of sales comes from innovative products. This global player employs more than 36,000 people worldwide, supplies customers in some 140 countries and has 53 production facilities in 19 countries. For more information go to www.osram.com.
Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH, Regensburg, is a subsidiary of Osram. It offers its customers solutions based on semiconductor technology for the lighting, sensor and visualisation sectors. The company has sites in Regensburg, San José (USA) and Penang (Malaysia). In the 2004 fiscal year (to the end of September) its 3,400 employees produced sales totalling EUR 459 million. For more information go to www.osram-os.com.



Contact for the technical press:
Markus Rademacher
Tel. +49 89 6213 2597
Fax +49 89 6213 3457

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