Altair Engineering's ilumisys Grants IP License to Light Emitting Designs for LED Fluorescent Tube Replacements

ilumisys parent company Altair Engineering allows licensed companies to provide products to the market, while ilumisys continues R&D efforts.

TROY, Mich – ilumisys, Inc., developer and producer of next-generation solid-state lighting technology, announced today that it has granted a license for its light-emitting diode (LED) fluorescent tube replacement patents to Light Emitting Designs of North Barrington, Ill.

The licensing agreement provides for royalty payments to be made on a per-unit basis in exchange for having rights to manufacture and sell products covered by Altair’s patent portfolio.

ilumisys, formed in 2007, is a spinoff of Altair, a global software and technology company that has a growing presence in the energy market. With the backing of Altair, its majority owner, ilumisys has a deep and substantial investment in research and development that includes more than 30 patent applications filed to date.

“We are pleased to be engaged as a licensee with ilumisys and its parent company, Altair Engineering,” said Tim Taylor, CEO of Light Emitting Designs. “The market for LED tube retrofits is significant and pegged for huge growth in 2010 and 2011. We are pleased to have secured that future growth by being a licensed provider.”

“The dynamic growth curve in LED lighting leaves room for a lot of providers with different areas of focus,” said ilumisys President Dave Simon. “The LED market is growing rapidly and by reducing barriers to that growth, our licensing program will play a positive role in leading the way for increased adoption of green and energy-efficient solid-state lighting.”

In addition to providing an energy-efficient alternative, unlike the fluorescent tubes they replace, LEDs are mercury free. The 500 million to 600 million fluorescent tubes discarded annually in the United States introduce an estimated two to four tons of mercury to the environment, despite industry and government efforts to limit mercury content and encourage recycling.

“Our licensing program will allow companies like Light Emitting Designs to provide products to the market, while enabling ilumisys to continue our research and development efforts aimed at what will be required for truly large-scale adoption over the next few years,” Simon continued. “We are very excited about where ilumisys products are headed, along with the new and improved technology coming out of our efforts. By giving licensees access to our expanding patent portfolio we believe that both product development and installation rates will move faster.”