The U.S. International Trade Commission has agreed to hear a case filed by Columbia University Professor Emeritus Gertrude Neumark Rothschild that seeks to block the importation of a wide array of consumer electronics products manufactured by 30 companies that infringe her patent for LEDs and laser diodes.

Among the products affected by this investigation are Sony Blu-ray players.

Professor Rothschild in her complaint to the ITC seeks to block the importation of the infringing products by companies such as Hitachi, Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Nokia Corp., Pioneer Corp., Samsung Group, Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Sharp Electronics Corp., Sony Corp., Sony Ericsson Mobile and Toshiba Corp.

Professor Rothschild settled already issues of infringement of her patents with Nichia Corp., OSRAM GmbH, Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. and Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.

LEDs are nothing new, so I am a bit puzzled that such a case is coming up just now. At this point it is just an investigation, will see if that actually will lead to something substantial that will affect consumers.

More details in this press-release and on the ITC site.