LED chip, lamp and lighting fixture maker Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA and Netherlands-based Philips (the parent firm of LED maker Philips Lumileds Lighting Company of San Jose, CA, USA) have signed a comprehensive, worldwide patent cross-license agreement designed to further accelerate the growth of the LED lighting market.

Cree and Philips both hold broad and substantial optoelectronic patent portfolios that are important to their respective businesses. The new agreement covers patents from both parties in the fields of blue LED chip technology, white LEDs and phosphors (including remote phosphors), control systems, LED luminaires and lamps as well as LED backlighting of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and patents in the Philips LED Luminaire Licensing Program.

“This agreement demonstrates the breadth and depth of both companies’ intellectual property, as well as the fundamental nature and value these patents bring to the market,” says Cree’s chairman & CEO Chuck Swoboda. “It also signals both companies’ commitment to growing the LED market while respecting the value and importance of international intellectual property laws,” he adds.

“Philips and Cree have significantly invested in innovation in LED lighting solutions. The wide-ranging IP portfolios of the respective companies reflect the outcome of this effort,” says Philips Lighting’s CEO Rudy Provoost. “We wish to see the accelerated adoption of LED lighting, and are therefore delighted that Cree will be joining our LED Luminaire Licensing Program.”

Other firms that have already joined Philips’ LED Luminaire Licensing Program include Osram, Zumtobel and Acuity Brands.