Patents

Samsung Display and BOE are fighting a legal battle in the US, as Samsung wishes to halt the import of BOE OLED displays (such as the ones used by Apple in the upcoming iPhone 4 SE smartphone, according to reports) saying that BOE infringes upon Samsung's patents. BOE, meanwhile, together with other OLED makers in China, answered with a motion of their own, to dismiss an SDC AMOLED patent. 

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has now ruled that BOE indeed infringed upon Samsung's OLED patents. However the ITC rejected Samsung's request to ban the import of BOE's displays into the US. Samsung asked to re-examine the decision and the final verdict on issue will be given on March 2025.

According to reports from Korea, three former senior researchers at LG Display are accused of passing OLED trade secrets to a Chinese panel maker. The Seoul District Prosecutor office says that the there researchers took photos of designs at LGD's Guangzhou factor in 2021 and 2022, related to large-area WOLED panel production processes.

One of the suspects started working for a large China-based display company in 2021, and he allegedly colluded with a former LG Display employee to steal large-scale OLED panel mass production technology.

Reports from Korea suggested that Samsung Display acquired 5 patents from US-based Orthogonal, that contains the company's mask-less OLED production process. With this purchase, SDC has a path towards developing its own maskless OLED production.

Maskless OLED production is of high interest lately, as these technology could offer higher pixel aperture ratio leading to higher efficiency, brightness and lifetime and brighter OLEDs, compared to FMM-based production processes. JDI for example claims its eLEAP technology enables an 2X increase in brightness and a 3X increase in lifetime, coupled with reduced production costs.

IPValue Management announced that it has acquired around 200 OLED patents from Seiko Epson. We do not know the nature of these patents, and whether IPValue bought all of Seiko Epson's OLED IP portfolio or just a part of it. IPValue says that the patents will be owned by its subsidiary Lumitek Display Technology.

Seiko Epson has been working on OLED technologies for many years - and it has been involved mostly with soluble OLED materials, ink-jet printing and OLED microdisplays. In 2013 Samsung Display bought several OLED patents from Seiko Epson. 

Kyulux announced that it has raised $28.6 million USD in its Series C funding round, led by El Camino Capital and the MCP Group. This brings Kyulux total funding so far to $86 million USD.

A part of the Kyulux team based in Fukuoka, Japan

Kyulxu says that it will use the newly raised funds to further accelerate its product development, strengthen its IP portfolio and achieve full-scale mass production of its emitter system by 2025, with its affiliated chemical companies.

Samsung Display filed a new complaint in the US trade commission (ITC) against BOE, claiming that the Chinese OLED producer is infringing on SDC's OLED patents and IP, and is using unfair methods of competition. 

In January 2023 Samsung filed a motion with the US ITC to halt the import of aftermarket AMOLED displays produced by BOE. A group of OLED makers in China, which includes BOE, answered with a motion of their own, to dismiss an SDC AMOLED patent. This legal battle continues, and the tension between Samsung and BOE is on the rise.

In 2021, we reported that two researchers working at Samsung Display were convicted of handing over OLED technology to other companies, and are being sent to prison for two years. Representative and directors of the company that bought the technology was also sent to prison and the company was fined. The technology in question relates to Optical Adhesive Materials used in OLED production processes. The arrest of these employees was reported earlier in 2020.

It is now reported that another employee of Samsung Display, also involved in that case (seems to be he was the main organizer of the outfit) fled Korea following his indictment, but has now returned voluntarily to Korea and has been arrested and is now bring charged with violating unfair competition laws in Korea. 

According to reports from Korea, Samsung Display is interested in acquiring OLED IP and patents from Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL). These patents detail an OLED production process that does not require the use of fine metal mask (FMM) evaporation.

The use of FMM to deposit and pattern OLED displays is seen as a major setback towards higher density OLED displays, and it also limits the aperture ratio. It is no wonder that Samsung is interested in such technology, as other display makers have developed similar technologies that offer massive performance boost over the standard FMM process.

According to reports from Korea, Samsung Electronics considered adopting AMOLED display produced by BOE for its next flagship smartphone, but the company has halted the review process as the two companies are in the midst of an IP dispute.

A few months ago Samsung filed a motion with the US ITC to halt the import of aftermarket AMOLED displays produced by BOE. A group of OLED makers in China, which includes BOE, answered with a motion of their own, to dismiss an SDC AMOLED patent. This legal battle continues, and the tension between Samsung and BOE is on the rise.