Universal Display announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) revoked one of the company's basic phosphorescent OLED patents, EPO #1449238. The opposing parties included Sumitomo Chemical, Merck and BASF. This is one of more than 60 patents issued worldwide that cover four early fundamental phosphorescent OLED inventions developed at Princeton University and the University of Southern California.
UDC's CEO, Steven Abramson, said that they believe the EPO's decision is erroneous and they may file a petition to review the matter. In addition, UDC has a pending divisional EP patent application in which it intends to pursue substantial patent coverage that is similar to that provided in related patents that have previously been issued in the other jurisdictions. In any case, the company believes that any one decision in any one jurisdiction will not have a material effect on their business.
A few weeks ago the Japanese High reversed the JPO's broad claims invalidation of UDC's patent #4511024. Last month the EPO affirmed the basic inventions and broad patent coverage in a different UDC patent (#1933395, which details the iridium L2MX composition) but narrowed the scope of the original claims).
Disclosure: the author of this post holds some shares in Universal Display
