Sidley Announces Settlement of Patent Infringement Claims Against Fourth LED Manufacturer
NEW YORK – Sidley Austin LLP announced today that firm client Professor Gertrude Neumark Rothschild has settled her patent infringement claims against Epistar Corporation, a Taiwanese corporation. The terms of the settlement are undisclosed. 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. Professor Neumark had previously settled patent infringement claims against Toyoda Gosei, a Japanese entity, Osram, a German corporation, and against Philips Lumileds this past May for an undisclosed settlement.
Professor Neumark had alleged that Epistar 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.