Patents - Page 14

Universal Display announced that it has contracted Duksan Hi-Metal to produce OLED host materials in Korea. The two companies have entered into a "master services agreement". The first initiative under the new agreement is to provide manufacturing services for "one of Universal Display’s host products for certain Korean customers". This is most likely a green host material for Samsung Display.

Samsung is already using UDC's green emitter and host materials in some OLED displays (the PSP Vita and the Motorola Droid RAZR smartphones) and is set to start using it in more products in the future with an aim to reduce the power consumption of its OLED displays. Having a green host manufacturer in Korea will enable UDC to lower the price of its material, and it's always good to have a 2nd supplier (all of UDC materials are currently produced by PPG Industries).

LG Display filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics over OLED technology. LG Display says that Samsung infringed upon seven of its OLED patents - which relate to the design of the OLED panel, the driver circuitry and device design. LG seeks damages - and also a permanent injunction against the sale of Samsung's Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Tab 7.7 in South Korea.

In response, Samsung said that it actually has more OLED patents than LG and it is yet to review the lawsuit and consider its legal actions. Earlier this month Samsung Display filed a lawsuit against LG over OLED technology tech leak. Samsung claims that LG Display stole 18 confidential technologies relating to OLED displays, and also gave some of the information to a third party. Samsung also reported that two of its OLED TVs were 'lost' during the shipment to the IFA exhibition, and this may be another case of industry espionage.

LG received a US patent (#8,271,047, applied to in 2008) that describes a mobile device interface that uses a bendable screen. LG's patented device uses two display - the top one is bendable while the bottom one is a rigid touch display. The user can bend or fold the top display to react with the device.

This seems to be a rather weird design. LG Display has plans to start mass producing flexible OLED panels in the second half of 2013, so such a device may see the light of day in the near future (although to be fair, these first flexible OLEDs will probably not be bendable).

When Universal Display raised $250 million back in early 2011, they said they are looking at IP acquisition. Finally the company bought Fujifilm's OLED IP portfolio for $105 million in July 2012. During Deutsche Bank's dbAccess technology conference, UDC's CFO Sidney Rosenblatt revealed that when they raised the money they already had Fujifilm's portfolio in mind, and they didn't know what it would cost, so they raise $250 million.

Sidney further reveals that the company does not see any more large acquisitions ahead.

Samsung Display filed a lawsuit against LG Display over OLED technology tech leak. Samsung Display claims that LG Display stole 18 confidential technologies relating to OLED displays, demanding a billion won (almost $900,000) for each technology. Samsung also said that LG Display gave some information to a third party.

In July we reported that 11 former and current Samsung employees were charged of giving LG Display confidential OLED technology, and this is Samsung's reaction in court. Actually, it seems strange that Samsung is only seeking about $17 million dollar in damages - this seems to be a very small amount when you consider that the OLED display market is now estimated to be about $6 billion, and is set to grow to about $44 billion by 2019.

Google filed an interesting patent in 2012, in which they suggest to reduce the image on a screen when the device is idle. The idea is that when the user is not active, the display size is slowly reduced, until it is invisible. The patent specifically says that this is useful on OLED displays - as it would save power and still present a somewhat useful image to the user.

The US federal court decided that Samsung did indeed infringe on several of Apple's patents (including the pinch-and-zoom, bounceback patent) and designs. Samsung got a $1 billion fine. Apple is seeking to ban certain Samsung products (such as the Galaxy S and the S II) from sale in the US.

This is a major win for Apple and a big loss for Samsung. Some fear that this may lead to a blow on the OLED market as well - where Android based devices (mostly made by Samsung) are the main clients of OLED displays currently. On the other hand, this may force Samsung (and other companies) to show new innovations, which perhaps may lead to faster adoption of new technologies including next-gen OLED panels (such as flexible or transparent ones).

Global OLED Technology (GOT) announced today that it hired a new management team to "lead its efforts to fully monetize its OLED patent portfolio". GOT's new president and CEO is Daniel S. Carlineo, Esq.

The new team can "comprehensively cover the full scope of a patent monetization program from inventing, prosecution, and acquiring new IP assets to licensing and litigation" according to Mr. Carlineo, the new CEO.

Back in June 2011 Universal Display announced that some of its patents have been invalidated in Japan by the Japanese Patent Office (JPO). The company gave an update today regarding two patents. On one patent (#3992929), the Japanese High Court acknowledged the validity of certain claimed inventions in the patent, but confirmed the JPO's conclusion to invalidate the broadest claims. UDC says it intends to appeal to the Japanese Supreme court. UDC's Shares are dropping around 10% now.

Regarding the second patent (#4511024), the JPO issued a decision upholding the validity of certain claimed inventions but invalidating the broadest claims. UDC believes this decision was erroneous and they intend to appeal to the Japanese High Court.

Universal Display's management presented in an investor conference (Deutsche Bank's Clean Tech, Utilities and Power Conference). They gave an interesting introduction to the company and its business. In the Q&A, Sid Rosenblatt, the company's CFO says that currently their green PHOLED emitter is used in only two products: the Motorola Droid RAZR and the Sony Vita. This is set to change and they expect more products in the second half of 2012.

This explains why UDC's first quarter revenues were lower than expected - while red emitters sales were up 150% over last year, the green emitter sales have dropped, due to low Vita sales and high volume purchases in the previous quarter.