Patents - Page 8

Samsung Display and LG Display had been fighting over display patents for a long time - with lawsuits launched by both sides and even accusations of stolen prototype TVs. In 2013 two two Korean arch-rivals agreed to resolve their OLED dispute and they even considered cross-licensing patents and dropped all OLED lawsuits against each other. But settlement negotiation failed, and it seems that the OLED wars are far from over.

Now we hear that the Suwon District Public Prosecutor's Office indicted five Samsung Display officials - for violation of the unfair competition prevention and trade secret protection act. LGD says that Samsung employees obtained OLED secrets on the pretext of purchasing equipment.

Universal Display and LG Display signed a new long-term OLED technology license agreement and supplemental material purchase agreement. The agreement runs till December 31, 2022.

Similarly to UDC's agreement with Samsung (signed in 2011), LGD gets non-exclusive license rights to manufacture and sell OLED displays, and will pay license fees and running royalties on its OLED product sales. UDC will also continue and supply phosphorescent materials for LG Display.

While we're all waiting for Apple's first OLED product (which will most likely be the Watch), it turns out that the company has developed another novel technology based displays.

A new patent filing shows a new technology that turns a flexible OLED display into a speaker membrane. This is only possible with a flexible display as the membrane needs to vibrate. This is a cool invention that may turn any flexible display into a large-sized speaker. I'm not sure if this won't harm the display quality, but this is still a novel idea.

According to an interesting market report from ETNews, LG Eelctronics is developing a smartphone with a bendable display. This technology will be similar to the bendable OLED TV prototypes we've seen, so you could press a button to change the phone from a curved state to a flat state. LGE has reportedly filed for a US patent describing such a system.

LG G Flex

ETNews says that this phone will actually be released very soon, and will be called the G Flex 2. We heard reports before that the G Flex 2 will be launched next month at CES 2015. I'm a bit skeptical that this will be a bendbale phone, as it seems a bit too early for a bendbale phone, but I wouldn't mind a good surprise from LGE!

Idemitsu Kosan and LG display entered into an expanded alliance to cooperate on OLED technologies. LGD aims to accelerate its OLED development and now have a license to use Idemitsu's OLED device patents.

Idemitsu has been collaborating with LGD on OLED technologies since 2009, and in 2010 Idemitsu acquired a 32.73% stake in Global OLED Technology (LG's OLED patent holdings company, acquired from Kodak's in December 2009).

Samsung SDI and LG Chem are already developing bendable Li-Ion batteries, but Nokia is aiming higher: the company recently filed a patent for a graphene-based flexible transparent self-charging photon battery. This is still very early technology probably, and we're not sure if the company actually aims to commercialize it, but it's still exciting.

Nokia's battery design can regenerate itself immediately after discharge through continuous chemical reactions, without an external energy input - just from the humidity in the air). This could prove to be a truly energy autonomous device.

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US-based Cree develops and manufactures LED materials and devices, mostly based on silicon carbide. Cree, founded in 1987, is one of the leading LED companies in the world.

Up until today I was not aware of any OLED research at Cree, but a few days ago the company was awarded with a US patent (USPTO# 8,841,834) regarding a hybrid OLED and LED lighting system - in which the white light is emitted by mixing OLED light with LED light (or other SSL white light source). This patent was submitted in 2012.

Samsung Display and LG Display had been fighting over display patents for a long time - with lawsuits launched by both sides and even accusations of stolen prototype TVs. In February 2013 the two companies agreed to resolve their OLED dispute and they even considered cross-licensing patents. Later in September 2013, they dropped all OLED lawsuits against each other in a reconciliatory gesture.

But the latest report from Korea is that the LG and SDC failed to negotiate a settlement. SDC wants to reach a patent cross-licensing deal, but LG is not interested. I think this may be because LG believes its WRGB technology is superior (and indeed they are much more advanced in their OLED TV efforts) - and perhaps Samsung is interested in adopting this technology for their OLED TVs as well.

Patent broker ICAP announced that on May 27 it will launch a new sale for an OLED IP package. This is an OLED patent portfolio developed by Japan's Goto Denshi that discloses a technique for OLED encapsulation. The portfolio includes 5 assets - 3 patents (in the US - patent #8,487,532, Russia and Japan) and 2 patent applications (In the US and Japan).

ICAP says that the patents describer a two-layer sealing technique which envelops an OLED display panel with an impermeable resin. ICAP says that this technology (which is applicable for both OLED display and lighting panels) not only provides a good barrier, but is also scalable to large screen sizes and mass production processes. The initial bidding guidance is low to mid 6 figures.