Major Players There are three major companies developing LED lighting American company Cree Inc. Japanese Nichia Corporation Dutch Royal Philips Electronics Company

Cree Inc: A brief History Cree Inc. was founded in 1987 as Cree Research Inc. by a core group of researchers from North Carolina State University. Specialized in manufacturing silicon carbide, invented one of the first blue LED’s in Early years ran on government funding, but quickly became one of the fastest growing publicly traded stocks in the USA.

Cree Inc: Today Today Cree is a multimillion dollar corporation developing and manufacturing semiconductors, LED chips and lighting, and power and Rf products. Despite it’s semiconductor roots, Cree has moved away from semiconductors and invested heavily in development of LED lighting. Recent growth has been focused on international trade and expansion in Hong Kong and China. Cree currently has 546 US patents.

Cree: Financials Cree’s primary source of income is now it’s LED products including LED lights and LED chips. Current company focus is to develop more efficient and brighter LED lights and chips and improve the manufacturing process. $ in millions

Royal Philips Electronics: A Brief History Royal Philips was founded in 1891 as an incandescent light bulb company in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. By 1918 the company, strengthened and now vertically integrated due to shortages caused by WWI, had established research laboratories and began diversifying. Philips continued diversifying into electronics markets and become a major international force in process and product innovation.

Royal Philips Electronics: Today Today Philips is a highly diversified international company developing and manufacturing televisions, lighting products, healthcare products, and other electronics markets. Although well rooted in incandescent light bulbs, Philips has invested heavily in research on LED lighting. Philips currently has about 55,000 patents.

Royal Philips Electronics: Financials Royal Philips is a highly diversified corporation, but has seen a continuous growth in it’s lighting sector. Philips consistently invests about 2.4 billion dollars annually in research and development. Dollars

Nichia: A Brief History Nichia was founded in Tokushima, Japan, in 1956 as a chemical engineering and manufacturing company. In 1993, Nichia managed to create the world’s first high brightness blue LED, leading to the creation of Nichia’s first white LED’s in Nichia Continued to expand internationally and develop phosphors and LED technologies.

Nichia: Today Today Nichia is an international corporation known for being on the cutting edge of LED development. Due to a tight patent policy and their position as leading innovators in the field, Nichia is constantly embroiled in legal battles. In 2009 Nichia grossed about $2.35 billion in revenue. Nichia currently has 433 US patents.

Licensing and lawsuits Recent years have seen many patent infringement lawsuits, particularly with Nichia. Currently, Nichia has filed lawsuits against Shenzhen Jiawei industries in China, Jiawei technology in Hong Kong, and Jiawei North America in Canada for four patent infringements. In 2002, after years of litigation, Cree and Nichia agreed to a patent cross-licensing scheme, allowing for accelerated research and development for each firm.

Licenses and lawsuits Nichia is currently suing Seoul Semiconductor for using Nichia designed LED’s without a license. Royal Philips has an active patent licensing program, allowing new companies to use their patents for a portion of revenues.

Cree’s LR-6 The LR-6 outputs about 1000 lumens of light with a 12 Watt input. – Equivalent to a 65 W incandescent Lasts 50,000 hours

Philip’s AmbientLED PAR30L The AmbientLED PAR30L generates 1850 lumens with in input of 11W. – Has a life time of 25,000 hours.

Nichia’s PAR-20 Argos Nichia’s 9W white LED PAR-20 Argos generates 700 lumens – Has an expected life time of 80,000 hours.