Chromlech, the French manufacturer behind innovative LED lighting products such as Jarag and Elidy, has gone out of business with the loss of 14 jobs. NKown as an innovator of lighting products, Chromlech enjoyed great success with its Jarag line of LED modules, which sold well for years, and still selling right up to the company’s demise. Gleamer, a dimmer dedicated to low-voltage lighting, won a PLASA Award for Innovation in 2011. Then came Elidy, a striking 5×5 LED matrix tile producing warm white beams of light, launched at the PLASA Show in 2012.
However, copies of the Elidy concept, made in China, began to appear on the market with months of the product’s release, and Chromlech found itself unable to take legal action to protect their intellectual property. Two patents covered Elidy – one for the technology and one for the design, or form factor. Unfortunately for Chromlech, their technology patent application was still pending and the differences introduced by the Chinese manufacturer to the form factor of its product – which was a 7×7 matrix instead of a 5×5, and also incorporated other minor design changes – meant that the design protection was also likely to be side-stepped.
Eventually, as the cheaper product took hold in the marketplace, at around 50% of the cost of Elidy, Chromlech’s project and sales leads evaporated. In June, Chromlech announced to its sales partners that the company had finally been forced to cease operations.
Chromlech, the French manufacturer behind innovative LED lighting products such as Jarag and Elidy, has gone out of business with the loss of 14 jobs. Known as an innovator of lighting products, Chromlech enjoyed great success with its Jarag line of LED modules, which sold well for years, and still selling right up to the company’s demise. Gleamer, a dimmer dedicated to low-voltage lighting, won a PLASA Award for Innovation in 2011. Then came Elidy, a striking 5×5 LED matrix tile producing warm white beams of light, launched at the PLASA Show in 2012.
However, copies of the Elidy concept, made in China, began to appear on the market with months of the product’s release, and Chromlech found itself unable to take legal action to protect their intellectual property. Two patents covered Elidy – one for the technology and one for the design, or form factor. Unfortunately for Chromlech, their technology patent application was still pending and the differences introduced by the Chinese manufacturer to the form factor of its product – which was a 7×7 matrix instead of a 5×5, and also incorporated other minor design changes – meant that the design protection was also likely to be side-stepped.
Eventually, as the cheaper product took hold in the marketplace, at around 50% of the cost of Elidy, Chromlech’s project and sales leads evaporated. In June, Chromlech announced to its sales partners that the company had finally been forced to cease operations.
www.chromlech.com
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