Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Former Color Kinetics inks license deal with Virginia firm

Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions, formerly known as Color Kinetics, reports reaching a licensing agreement that provides a Virginia company access to its patent portfolio.

The division of Philips, which is based in Burlington, agreed to a deal in which Renaissance Lighting will offer its own intelligent light-emitting diode (LED) lighting products, as well as using Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions' core technology in new product development, company officials said.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions is the division formed in June 2007 when Royal Philips Electronics NV acquired Color Kinetics Inc., then based in Boston, for $791 million.

Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions' patent portfolio focuses on a range of digital technologies and methods of controlling LED sources for a variety of lighting applications and environments.

Virginia-based Renaissance Lighting develops lighting systems that blend light from multiple LEDs to produce a single light source.

Color Kinetics was co-founded by George Mueller and chief scientist Ihor Lys -- a Mass High Tech All-Star in 2004 -- in 1997 and completed an initial public offering in 2004.