Seoul Semiconductor (represented by Chung Hoon Lee, www.acriche.com), a world’s leading LED manufacturer, said on April 13 that it reached an agreement with M-Vision for licensing patents related to portable fluorescent forgery detector, which was jointly developed by its subsidiary Seoul Optodevice (represented by Myeong Seok Oh, www.socled.com) and Korea Minting & Security Printing Corporation (KOMSCO).

With the licensing contract, Seoul Optodevice will receive licensing royalties from M-Vision, an industrial optical component developer, as a part of sales of ‘the portable fluorescent forgery detector’ adopting its technologies.

‘The portable fluorescent forgery detector’ is widely used for identifying forgery of bank notes, securities, passports, gift coupons, and ID cards by commercial banks and financial companies, as well as transportation companies, self-employed firms and small businesses that mainly transact securities. And its demand is expected to significantly increase as counterfeit money raises issues around the world.

Ultra violet (UV) mercury lamps have been mainly used for detecting forgery, but UV LED provides excellent features in lifetime, durability, output power and eco-friendliness. Unlike existing UV mercury lamps that can detect forgery in dark areas only, UV LED can easily identify forgery even in bright places.

Meanwhile, Seoul Optodevice installed commercial production facilities of short wavelength deep UV LED for the first time in the industry, partnering with the U.S.-based SETI in the form of investment in stakes. Seoul Optodevice is the only company that commercialized short wavelength deep UV LED as of now, and it is expected that development of such LED with commercial potential will be difficult to evade patent rights of Seoul Semiconductor and Seoul Optodevice.