EPISTAR Corp., a leading manufacturer of light-emitting diodes, recently achieved a complete victory in petitions filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“Patent Office”) brought by Lowe’s Home Center, LLC and Fujian Sanan Group Co., Ltd. challenging the validity of five EPISTAR patents related to EPISTAR’s innovative LED filament bulb technology.  The five patents are U.S. Patent Nos. 6,346,771, 7,560,738, 8,492,780, 8,587,020, and 8,791,467.
 
These five patents are the subject of a pending patent infringement lawsuit brought by EPISTAR against Lowe’s, filed on April 28, 2017 in United States District Court.  In view of Lowe’s and Fujian Sanan’s petitions before the Patent Office seeking to invalidate these five patents, EPISTAR firmly explained, in a detailed response, to the Patent Office why EPISTAR’s patents are novel and non-obvious, and that the petitions should be denied.
 
As a result, the Patent Office agreed with EPISTAR that its innovations were deserving of patent protection, and denied institution of each and every petition.  Specifically, on November 1, 2018, the Patent Office denied institution on the petitions challenging the ’467 and ’738 patents, and on November 20, the Patent Office denied institution on the petitions challenging the ’771, ’780, and ’020 patents.  By law, the Patent Office’s decision not to institute inter partes review cannot be appealed.  
 
Respect and recognition for intellectual property rights is crucial to the continuing innovation and development of LED filament technology.  EPISTAR will continue to, with determination, protect the interests of its customers, strategic alliance partners and shareholder through the enforcement of its intellectual property rights. 

In the IPR proceedings, EPISTAR is represented by James Yoon, Matthew Argenti, Michael Rosato of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Patrick McPherson and Joseph English of Duane Morris.