Signify has more than 1,000 companies paying for lighting and lighting technology patents

In the era of declining sales in the lighting industry, the technology licensing portfolio may be easier to achieve than ever. In this sense, the situation has become more optimistic for Signify. The company said that the number of companies that pay for its intellectual property (IP) related to LED lamps and bulbs has exceeded 1,000.

The world’s largest lighting company, formerly known as Philips Lighting, has continued to increase its EnabLED program licenses while adding 150 new innovation patents, and the total number has reached 900 since May last year.

Frank Bistervels, head of intellectual property rights at Signify, said: "Our EnabLED licensing program can help users accelerate product development, shorten product time to market, increase procurement flexibility, and increase cost-effectiveness."

Bistervels stated that EnabLED licensors include small to large companies, and its innovations involve "filament LED products, temperature dimming incandescent lamp simulation, omnidirectional lighting LED lights, LED glare reduction, asymmetric LED light output, LED color uniform mixing, and networked LED lighting. Technology." He said that compared to ten years ago, technology has achieved a huge leap. At that time, the focus of LED innovation was color lighting in the architectural and theater markets.

Signify's EnabLED licensing program has more than 1,000 contracted companies. Bistervels believes that Signify’s IP license will increasingly be used in areas that represent the future of lighting-such as adjustable lighting, used in horticultural applications to improve plant growth or ambient lighting using human-centered lighting technology, where the light of the spectrum and output can be customized and diversified to support human health and biological rhythms. The IP will also be the key to a solution where LED lights equipped with sensors and communication chips become part of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Bistervels said: "Looking forward, we believe that some of the technologies we provide will help provide additional functions and smart LED lighting products, such as adjustable white light, human-oriented lighting, and networked lighting innovations."

Signify did not disclose the proceeds from the EnabLED license.

In 2018, the company's sales fell by 8.7% to 6.36 billion euros (US$7.21 billion), and the adjusted profit before interest and taxes in 2018 fell by 4.4% to 640 million euros (US$726 million). Both the pre-interest and tax profit and net profit fell by 7.2 % To 410 million euros (465 million US dollars) and 261 million euros (296 million US dollars).

Comparable sales fell to 1.73 billion euros ($1.96 billion) in the fourth quarter ended December 31. Although cost cuts brought huge gains for the quarter, adjusted EBITA rose slightly by 3.2% to 214 million euros (243 million. U.S. dollars), earnings before interest and taxes (from operations) soared 132% to 173 million euros (196 million US dollars), and net profit soared 216% to 119 million euros (134 million US dollars).

The entire lighting industry is currently struggling. Osram, the world's second-largest lighting company, will soon be acquired by private equity firms Bain Capital and Carlyle Group. This month, the intelligent lighting company LIFX was also acquired by IoT provider Buddy Platform. In November last year, GE announced the signing of an agreement to sell GE's Current to American Industrial Partners (AIP), a private equity firm headquartered in New York, while continuing to seek buyers for the rest of its traditional lighting business.