How to specify an LED optic

6 questions to consider to write a good requirements document for an LED illumination project, by John Ellis founder of Optics for Hire

How to specify a custom imaging lens

7 key specifications when working with an optical engineer to design a custom imaging lens for your application. Questions we ask at www.opticsforhire.com but apply to any optics project.

a pickle that glows, & more tech changing lighting

Today’s batch: a pickle that glows and four more technologies changing the future of lighting.

• Quantum Dot LEDs
  Brighter, more efficient LEDs are being enabled by quantum dots. An early backgrounder from Univ. of Florida (video), and technical information on QLEDs from our innovative neighbors, QD Vision.
• Glowing OLED pickle
  OLED pioneer Prof. Vladimir Bulovic’ demonstrates OLED action in an electric pickle.
• Fireflies Spark An Idea: Jagged scales increase light extraction
  Annick Bay from the Univ. of Namur found firefly structures that increase light emission in computer simulations. By incorporating these findings to prevailing manufacturing practices, LED lighting could see improvement in the coming years. Read more about it here.
• Light For The Distressed
  “Light should be included… for victims of a natural disaster.” Two Columbia graduate students came up with an emergency light: LuminAID, an inflatable solar-charged lantern. When news of the 2010 disaster in Haiti broke out, LuminAID units were sent to areas that were hit. Watch to learn more.
• Gesture-controlled interior lighting
  The firm ams AG discussed occupant-aware LED lighting at Touch Gesture Motion (Austin 2012).                                                                     

Know some good ones we missed? Send us an email and we’ll credit you in a future email.

5 optics & LED newsfeeds you should be reading

More optics links we hope will spark your interest. Today’s batch: 5 optics related news sites you should be reading

• Image Sensors World
  Very high-quality blog on image sensors, including light field sensors, curated by Vladimir Koifman w/optional email digest. (Image Sensors World)
• North American Lighting Industry
  Edison Report emphasizes illumination / LEDs, from big (OSRAM, CREE) to new (Kickstarter efforts like LIFX). [Edison Report]                              
• LED News & Pricing
  See LEDinside for industry news and price-tables - e.g. “LED bulb street price.”
• Hot R&D Topics in Optics and Photonics
  Long-time fans of phys.org and its section for optics and photonics news releases, which are often one day ahead of other tech news sites.
• The Briefing: Curated News
  Check out Sunny Bains’s “The Briefing,” a personalizable site of high quality scientific news, including optics.
• BONUS: Twitter accounts to follow
  We follow:  @SPIEtweets - @azooptics - @WomenInOptics - @LEDinside - @PhotonicPat - @DisplayCentral - @opticalsociety (OSA) - @matthias_us (Matthias Wagner) - @holoxica (3D) - and of course, @OFH_John & @gfavalora

Know some good ones we missed? Send us an email and we’ll credit you in a future email.

-Gregg and John

Stronger patents: surprising lessons from litigation and sale

OFH analyzes optical patents and patent applications, and also engages as expert witnesses for patent litigation in optics, displays, and 3-D. Through my career I’ve overseen the filing of 30-40 patent applications, including drafting the text so that they’re in good shape for an attorney - saving some $, too.

What lessons did I learn when I “went to the other side of the table” from a drafter of disclosures to someone who analyzes IP during litigation or acqusition?

During my career as a non-attorney, I learned:

1. Make sure that “special words” are clearly defined, and have no conflicting definitions. For example, if you introduce the term optical washerspout 15, it should not simultaneously be a “rectangular portal for the exit of optical energy” and a “circular input for acoustic energy.” Sounds basic, but inconsistencies are sometimes not caught during prosecution, and then rear their heads during litigation or M&A. So, during prosecution (the patent-getting phase), maintain a numbered list of the terminology and their numbers.

2. If you are an engineer at a large company whose attorneys file reams of patent applications, ask the attorney if you can help review the claims prior to filing, so that you can help remove limitations where possible. (“Limitations” are words that restrict the universe of the patent’s power by defining the boundaries of what the patent claims.) Why? Some patent attorneys have said to me that large clients sometimes feel like impersonal generators of 100s of patents per year, with zero back-and-forth with the inventor. Therefore, your participation could be appreciated and might end in a stronger patent, in the (hopefully) infrequent event of an under-motivated patent attorney not fighting limitations energetically enough during prosecution.

3. Work with your attorney to make sure your application is enabling. Can someone with access to a good library build your invention from what’s stated in the patent? Also - seek guidance on something I’m not qualified to advise you on: what types of detail are helpful, and what types of detail are harmful.

4. Ask your attorney if your lengthy, detailed, citation-rich Background section ought to be deleted. Some law firms take the position that the Background is a double-edged sword. Yes, they could help a future judge and jury understand the patent… but they can also unintentionally limit the scope or field of the invention to a niche.

5. BONUS: Re-read your patent application while imagining it is the target (or weapon) of deep-pocketed litigation. Specifically:

• Is the chain of title truly clear?
• If the ideas were developed within a government contract, do you have paper or electronic copies of that contract’s IP-rights section?
• Do you have all assignments? (Really, check…!)
• Where are the inventor notebooks?
• If litigation: do you have records of any previous contact with the litigant?
• Did you or your employer enter into any licenses that even tangentially relate to the inventions (e.g. software licenses, a beast to themselves?)
• Will a judge - who might lack an engineering degree - be able to understand the patent in a first reading of it?
• Does the specification offer a logical narrative flow?

DISCLAIMER: OFH is not a law firm and cannot provide legal advice. The author is not a Patent Agent. OFH is a group of engineers with many years of experience in the drafting, review, and prosecution of patents and patent applications.

Gregg Favalora (Principal, OFH)