Sylvania and Artison Sued over Light-Speaker

Plaintiff: Kadence Designs

Defendants: Sylvania and Artison

Case number: 3:12-cv-00653

Date filed: December 13 2012

Patents in suit:

Patent Number Current Assignee[i]	Issued Date	Expiration Date[ii]	Title
US7535341 Western Venture	May 19, 2009	Mar 23, 2026	Combination speaker / light fixture
US7817016 Kadence Designs	Oct 19, 2010	Mar 23, 2026	Screw-in LED light and sound bulb
US8299903 Kadence Designs	Oct 30, 2012	Mar 23, 2026	Screw-in LED light and sound bulb

Note: Table information sourced from Maxval Assignment Database. As per complaint, Kadence Designs is the owner by assignment of the ‘341 patent with rights to enforce and sue infringers.

About the parties: 

Osram Sylvania is the North American operation of lighting manufacturer Osram, which is owned by Siemens. It was established in January 1993, with the acquisition of GTE’s Sylvania lighting division by Osram GmbH. The company produces a wide range of lighting products for home, business and automotive use. It sells its North American products under the Sylvania brand name and uses the brand Osram in the rest of the world. 

Artison primarily operates in the audio and video equipment manufacturing company. It specializes in flat panel display.

As in complaint:

Plaintiff alleges that the defendants have infringed the above patents through sale of its MusicLites (see Fig. 1), a combination light-speaker product. MusicLites are wireless-enabled speakers that combine a full-range speaker with an LED light. MusicLites are used with several different wireless transmitters to work with various audio sources.  Artison provided the audio technology for the Musiclites. Both the defendants have marketed them to wholesalers as well as retailers as indicated on their website www.musiclites.com. 

Fig. 1

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[i] MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.

[ii] Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents.