Cree accuses California e-retailer of counterfeiting, trademark infringement

By: Lauren Ohnesorge

Durham-headquartered LED giant Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) has filed a trademark infringement case against California e-retailer TomTop Group, accusing it of dealing in “pirated and counterfeit” Cree-branded products on sites such as eBay and Amazon.

“In light of the success of (Cree) … Its products have become targets for unscrupulous individuals and entities that wish to take a free ride on its goodwill, reputation and fame,” the complaint reads.

According to Cree's allegations, TomTop was never authorized to distribute Cree products or use its trademarks. But investigators from Cree purchased several flashlights from TomTop, receipts for which are included in the exhibits filed with the suit. Cree claims those transactions and the products it purchased – many of which Cree says carry an unauthorized “Cree” label and are falsely advertised as being Cree merchandise – are evidence of wrongdoing. Reproductions of Cree trademarks were copied onto products and product packaging in attempts to convince customers that the TomTop wares were made by Cree, the suit alleges.

“Defendants’ actions were committed in bad faith and with the intent to dilute Plaintiff’s marks, and to cause confusion and mistake,” the complaint reads. Cree is asking for relief and damages that include TomTop’s profits, triple damages for intentional infringement and reimbursement for its attorney fees.

The case, filed last Wednesday in the Central District of California, demands a jury trial. Xinhui Liao, a/k/a Mike Liao, TomTop founder, is also named in the suit as well as 10 unknown "Doe" defendants who Cree claims were involved in the wrongdoing.

Cree didn’t have an immediate comment on the suit and TomTop has not responded to a request for comment on the case.

Cree has been taking several recent steps to aggressively protect its intellectual property, filing suits against such companies as Feit Electronics and Kingbright Electronic Co.

"We've got a pretty simple strategy, right?" CEO Chuck Swoboda said in February. "We prefer people not to import infringing products and we'd like to get paid for our IP."

See original article at Triangle Biz Journal:  http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/techflash/2015/12/cree-accuses-california-e-retailer-of.html?ana=yahoo&ref=yfp

LED lighting market growth to shrink in next five years?

By Srabani Sen, BizLED Bureau

Nov 30, 2015: LED lighting has become quite popular worldover, yet industry experts speculate itsgrowth to shrink in the next five years. Most of the countries have realized its benefits and are taking several initiatives to make it a household name. However, to make it a mass movement, industry experts feel that the prices of LED lighting products should come down even more. Governments are, therefore, making appeals to the manufacturers to cut down production prices to bring down the prices of LED lighting products and make it more affordable.

According to an industry estimate, the global LED lighting market will reach US$25.7 billion in 2015 and further expand to US$30.5 billion in 2016. The penetration rate of LED lighting will increase by 31% in 2015, which will increase to 36% in 2016.

READ ALSO: Vietnam is becoming a potential LED lighting market

Although high demands for LED lighting spurred the volume of its usage and increased the growth of the market in 2015, which will continue in 2016 as well, industry experts fear that the high priced LEDs and the neck deep competition in the global LED lighting market will see its growth shrink in the next five years. Ironically, the increasingly energy efficient LEDs will see a dip in its usage volume in the next five years if the prices do not dip further. As a result, manufacturers are under immense pressure to further lower the prices of LEDs. Research firms project that in the next five years, the LED industry’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will not increase by more than 10%.

Less scope for further price cuts

The demand for LED lighting fell short of expectations in 2015 because during the second half of 2015, LED chip and LED package prices dipped sharply, leading to losses incurred by many manufacturers. Manufacturers are immensely under pressure to lower the prices of LED production to bring down the prices further. However, LED market analysts point out that in the long run, there will be limited scope for further price cuts. Manufacturers would, therefore, need to look for other cost reducing solutions. Besides lowering LED chip prices, manufacturers would require to evaluate cutting down prices of components like LED drivers, and that of designing the products and the components.

READ ALSO: India’s LED lighting market to grow at 32.15% in the next six years

Manufacturers across the globe are also demanding that their governments should follow China’s LED policy, which provides high rate of subsidies to the LED manufacturers leading them to cut prices of LED productions. With the support of the Chinese government, the local LED industry has become the world’s largest LED lighting manufacturing hub.

In 2015, manufacturers were also hit by currency fluctuations. As a result, demands for LED lightingproducts in different countries have been much lower than expected. To add to this woe, LED pricescontinued to slide in 2015. Consequently, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the LED industryhave been faced with financial losses, and were faced with negative cash flow. Industry analysts believe that if this trend continues many smaller manufacturers will be ousted from the LED industry. They also predict that the next bankruptcy wave in the LED industry will be most evident before the Chinese Lunar New Year.

LED lighting manufacturers have also started shifting their focus to professional lighting markets with tremendous growth potentials like commercial lighting, industrial lighting, architectural lighting, and automotive lighting. They have pinned their hope on the increase in government spending, especially in new public projects. They believe that new government projects will create new opportunities and help in faster penetration of LED lighting.

Original Article at Biz LED Magazine: http://bizled.co.in/led-lighting-market-growth-to-shrink-in-next-five-years/

More transparent and brighter LEDs soon

By BizLED Bureau

Nov 30, 2015: Researchers from University of California-Berkeley have discovered a simple way to make monolayer semiconductors, which are less than a nanometre thick, yet more efficient and defect free. This discovery will open the door to more applications of monolayer materials, such as MoS2, in devices like LEDs and high-performance transistors.

Monolayer semiconductors have become much talked about thing as they could be quite useful in the development of transparent LED displays, ultra-high efficiency solar cells, photo detectors and nano-scale transistors. But the films are riddled with defects, killing their performance. However, these researchers found a simple way to fix these defects through the use of an organic superacid.

The chemical treatment gives 100-fold increase in the material’s photoluminescence quantum yield–a ratio that describes the amount of light generated by the material versus the amount of energy put in. The greater the emission of light, the higher the quantum yield and the better the material quality.
Researchers enhanced the quantum yield for molybdenum disulfide, or MoS2, from less than 1% up to 100% by dipping the material into a superacid called bistriflimide, or TFSI.

This treatment also has revolutionary potential for transistors. When devices in computer chips get smaller and thinner, defects play a bigger role in limiting their performance.

Original Article at Biz LED Magazine: http://bizled.co.in/more-transparent-and-brighter-leds-soon/

Japan energy-efficiency plan to switch off all light bulbs, fluorescent tubes

The government plans to phase out all incandescent light bulbs and fluorescent tubes by fiscal 2020 and light up the nation with highly energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LED), according to sources.

The policy was conceived ahead of the 21st Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change scheduled for the end of the month in Paris.

Replacing the light bulbs would reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in Japan and promote the government’s efforts to develop a greener nation.

But the policy could also put a strain on households and businesses by depriving them of the option of buying inexpensive light sources.

A rapid shift to LED light sources is expected to occur when light bulbs and fluorescent tubes are no longer imported and domestic stocks run dry. That situation could lead to a reduction of costs amid increased demand.

The government has been controlling fluorescent tubes and LED lamps under the “top-runner system,” a policy that restricts production and imports of new merchandise unless it performs better than the most energy-efficient example in the same product category.

Incandescent light bulbs, fluorescent tubes and LED lamps currently have their own categories. But the three will be combined into a singular lamp category under an energy efficiency action plan expected to be established around summer 2016.

That move would effectively take light bulbs and fluorescent tubes out of the game because LED lamps are far more energy efficient than the two traditional light sources.

The government plans to make these changes through revisions of the Rational Use of Energy Law, commonly known as the energy conservation law.

(This article was written by Shinya Takagi and Keiko Nannichi.)

Original Article on Asahi Shimbun:  http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201511260040

Failure to report to the CPSC costs Philips Lighting North America millions

Photo source: CPSC

By James Limbach

Philips Lighting North America of Somerset, N.J., will pay a $2 million civil penalty to the government, settling charges that it  knowingly failed to report information to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) about a defect and an unreasonable risk of serious injury with EnergySaver (a.k.a. “Marathon” or “Marathon Classic”) compact fluorescent lamps.

After numerous complaints about glass separating from the body of the lamps and striking people and objects, and attempting multiple design changes to fix the problem, Philips failed to report the matter to the CPSC. The incidents resulted in ten reports of lacerations and seven reports of property damage.

In addition to paying the $2 million civil penalty, Philips has agreed to implement and maintain a compliance program to ensure compliance with the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) and a related system of internal controls and procedures.

Compliance program

The compliance program requires written standards and policies and written procedures to ensure that all information regarding the firm’s compliance with the CPSA, including reports and complaints, whether an injury is referenced or not, is conveyed to the firm’s responsible employees. The compliance program also must address:

• confidential employee reporting of compliance concerns to a senior manager;
• effective communication of compliance policies and procedures, including training;
• senior management responsibility for, and board oversight of, compliance; and
• requirements for record retention.

The lamps were recalled in August 2011 after Philips had manufactured about 1.86 million units. Grocery and home center stores, online retailers, and professional electrical distributors sold the lamps from March 2007 through July 2011 for between $11 and $24 each.

Philips does not admit to the CPSC staff’s charges.

Original Article on Consumer Affairs: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/failure-to-report-to-the-cpsc-costs-philips-lighting-north-america-millions-112715.html