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30 September 2020PatentsMuireann Bolger

USITC targets Ikea and GE in bulb investigation

General Electric (GE), Ikea and Home Depot, are among companies under investigation by the US International Trade Commission (ITC), following a complaint filed by the University of California (UC).

Filed on August 31, the complaint alleged that the companies violated section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 relating to the importation and sale of “light bulbs containing filament light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and lighting products containing filament LEDs”, and infringed patents owned by the university.

The move follows an earlier complaint by the university in July against retailers of LED lightbulbs, including Walmart, Amazon, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Target.

According to UC, the suits are about “protecting the reinvention of the light bulb” by a Nobel-laureate team at UC, Santa Barbara. The bulbs are designed to imitate the iconic look of ones developed by GE founder Thomas Edison, inventor of the first mass-marketed bulb.

The team at UC was led by Japanese-American scientist Shuji Nakamura, who won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on creating blue LEDs.

The university owns four patents that it says are “fundamental to a new generation of light bulbs” powered by LED technology.

In the latest complaint, the university has requested that the ITC issue a limited exclusion order and a cease and desist order.

Alongside General Electric and Ikea, the ITC will also investigate Consumer Lighting of East Cleveland, Savant Systems of Hyannis, Home Depot of Atlanta, Feit Electric Company, and Satco Products.

The ITC’s chief administrative law judge will assign the case to one of the USITC’s administrative law judges (ALJ), who will schedule and hold a hearing. The ALJ will decide whether there is a violation of section 337, which is subject to review by the commission.

ITC remedial orders in section 337 cases become final 60 days after issuance unless disapproved for policy reasons by Robert Lighthize, the US Trade Representative, within that period.

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