Date: 27/09/2008

Philips and Osram signed LED patent license agreement

Royal Philips Electronics and Osram have concluded a patent license agreement for LED-based technology used in luminaires. As per the agreement, Osram has taken a license from Philips to offer royalty free LED-based luminaire licensing program to Osram customers. The compensation to Philips for this arrangement also benefits Philips customers because it includes royalty free access to Osram LED system patents when purchasing all key components from Philips. This agreement is a next step in making the basic Philips LED control IP broadly available to accelerate the development of the market.

Rudy Provoost, Chief Executive Officer of Philips Lighting comments: "Trends such as the shift to solid-state lighting and the transition to energy-efficient lighting, impact the way we do business. Both Philips and Osram are aware of the changing market. We therefore see it as a milestone concluding this agreement so that our customers can further develop the LED-based lighting market."

Strategic partnership such as this gives hint of growing LED lighting market. Power LED based luminaires might dominate the lighting market in a year or two and they going to drive power IC market significantly.