Nichia wins enforcement proceeding in Germany against Everlight’s subsidiary WOFI

On September 17, 2020, in the enforcement proceeding of a final judgment of the Düsseldorf District Court in favor of Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”), which Nichia initiated against WOFI Leuchten Wortmann & Filz GmbH (“WOFI”), the Düsseldorf District Court rendered a decision that confirmed Nichia’s claims and imposed two penalties on WOFI for non-compliance with the judgment. The enforcement decision of the Düsseldorf District Court is not final and has been appealed by WOFI. Nichia, however, strongly believes that the decision will be maintained in the appeal. WOFI is a manufacturer of residential lighting products and a German subsidiary of Taiwanese LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd..

(Image:Paixin)

The enforcement proceeding concerns WOFI’s obligation to render account information of infringing products as basis for calculating the damages, and to recall the respective infringing products. In the proceeding, the parties disputed whether not only the infringing products of (1) below, but also WOFI products of (2) and/or (3) below are within the scope of WOFI’s obligation:
(1) 12 products explicitly cited in the aforementioned judgment;
(2) 18 additional products accused in the appeal against this judgment;
(3) more than 100 other products belonging to the same product series of the products under (1) and (2) above.

Nichia asserted that all WOFI products of (1), (2) and (3) above should be included and requested WOFI to render account information of more than 130 products. WOFI, to the contrary, argued that the scope of its obligation should be limited to the 12 products of (1) above only, and refused to render account information of the remaining products of (2) and (3) above.

Nichia believed that WOFI’s allegation clearly misinterpreted the judgment by unreasonably narrowing the scope of the infringing products in order to minimize WOFI’s damage payment obligation. Therefore, Nichia initiated the enforcement proceeding claiming that WOFI’s refusal would constitute a breach of its obligation determined in the judgment. The court confirmed Nichia’s legal view and imposed a penalty on WOFI for breach of its obligation under the judgment in the amounts of EUR 15,000.00 (rendering account obligation) and EUR 10,000.00 (recall obligation). As a result of this decision, WOFI is obliged to also render account information of the further products of (2) and (3) above. These additional more than 118 products will be included in the damage calculation.

Nichia seeks to protect its patents and other intellectual property rights and takes actions against alleged infringers in any country where appropriate and necessary.

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