TIR receives patent covering LED delineation products

May 2, 2005

TIR Systems Ltd. has been granted US patent #6,882,111 entitled “Strip Lighting System Incorporating Light Emitting Devices”. The patent covers the enabling technology and overall system architecture that forms the basis for TIR’s LightMark™ product for the corporate identity market as well as its ColorTrace™ product sold into the architectural lighting market.

Since the development of this technology and subsequent commercialization, these products have combined to produce over CDN$38.5 million in revenue for the company.

LightMark™ has been used by BP, PetroCanada, A&W, and Irving Oil to delineate over 5,000 retail sites, while ColorTrace™ has been installed in such high-profile locations such as The Preston Street Arch in Ottawa and The Washington State Convention Centre. Designed to replace neon, the combined energy savings of these sites, when compared directly to neon, is over 4,000 watts per site, or as much as 90%, and represents a reduction in energy demand of over 20 MW.

“This patent is important for TIR because it prevents competitors from taking advantage of the innovations we have introduced that make LightMark™ and ColorTrace™ the most reliable and competitive products in their markets,” said Ed Sadowski, VP of Marketing and Product Development for TIR.

The patent for TIR’s delineation technology is the most recent addition to the company’s rapidly expanding portfolio of intellectual property, which currently includes 44 patent applications in the field of SSL and comes within two weeks of its recently announced patent for using SSL in grid ceilings found in general illumination applications.