NICHIA CORPORATION (NICHIA) announced today that it has issued patent infringement proceedings (HC-06C03955) in the London High Court (Patents Court) against the UK based high street retailer, ARGOS LIMITED (Argos). The proceedings, which include a claim for damages and a permanent injunction from future infringement, were served on Argos earlier in Nov 2006. The claim relates to the sale by Argos of white LED Christmas lights including the following products: 1) "120 White Multifunction LED Lights" sold in Autumn Winter 2006 and 2) "144 Multifunction White LED Crab Lights" sold in Autumn/Winter 2005. Nichia believes that these products infringe at least two of its European Patents.

NICHIA gives serious consideration to the protection of its intellectual property and will vigorously enforce its intellectual property rights in any country. It is currently embarking on a programme of enforcing its patent rights against infringers throughout Europe.