Patent Law

The following is excerpted from a July 31, 2008 Dreier LLP press release:

After reaching licensing agreements with several leading multinational consumer electronics companies over a patent covering key LED and LD technology, a Columbia University Professor Emerita is reviewing additional companies for possible inclusion in her patent infringement lawsuit at the ITC that involves basic semiconductor technology used in Blu-ray video players, mobile phones, digital cameras, TVs, computer screens and other devices which use blue, green, violet and ultraviolet lighting, Dreier LLP announced today.

The ITC agreed in March to hear Professor Rothschild's complaint, which named a total of 31 companies. Other companies named in the suit include Hitachi Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Nokia Corp., Samsung Group, Sharp Corp. and Toshiba Corp.

Professor Rothschild, who is the sole owner of the patent, conducted landmark research in the 1980s and 1990s into the electrical and optical properties of so-called wide band-gap semiconductors that has proven pivotal in the development of short-wavelength light emitting diodes and laser diodes that are now widely used in consumer electronics.

Read the full press release here.