Foley Secures Victory for Nichia

On February 11, 2014, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) held that all claims of United States Patent No. 6,653,215 (the “’215 Patent”) are not patentable, and ordered them cancelled. The USPTO also denied Emcore Corporation’s Motion to Amend Claims.

Emcore, the owner of the ’215 Patent, and Everlight Electronics, its exclusive licensee, asserted the ’215 Patent against Nichia. In response, Nichia Corporation filed the Petition on September 16, 2012 in the USPTO requesting an inter partes review of all of the claims of the ’215 Patent. In its final decision, the USPTO held that Nichia had met its burden of proof in showing that all of the claims are unpatentable as “obvious” over several prior publications. In its counterclaim in the Michigan litigation, Nichia asserts, among other things, that Everlight infringes Nichia’s US Patents Nos. 5,998,925 and 7,531,960, both directed to white LEDs. An IPR Petition has not been filed against either of these Nichia patents by Everlight, or anyone else.

Nichia Corporation is represented by Michael D. Kaminski, Steven J. Rizzi, and Lisa S. Mankofsky of Foley & Lardner LLP.