On January 6, 2025, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which is responsible for patent invalidation hearings, issued its final results of the IPR (Inter Partes Reviews) of BOE's challenge to two Samsung Display patents. The results showed that most of the claims of the two patents were invalidated for lacking inventiveness, while only one claim of each patent was retained. Overall, this IPR indicates greater progress has been made for BOE, but as some of the claims have been maintained, there is still a risk of infringement for the company.
The patents involved are related to a previous patent litigation between the two parties. As early as May 2, 2022, Samsung Display sent a letter to the defendant BOE Beijing, notifying it that the OLED displays manufactured and offered for sale by BOE infringed Samsung Display's patents, including Patent Nos. 599 (US7,414,599), 593 (US9,330,593), 803 (US9,330,593), 803 (US9,330,593), and 803 (US9,330,593). On June 26, 2023, Samsung Display Co., Ltd. (“Samsung Display”) filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against BOE for infringement of its five OLED-related patents (in addition to the four patents mentioned above, another patent-US11,594,578 or the No. 578 Patent, was also involved) - the two patents that were partially invalidated this time were the second of the five patents sued for infringement.
In response, BOE has filed invalidation requests of these five patents with the PTAB, and so far all of them have been formally accepted. However, judging from current results, three out of the five patents have not been completely invalidated, consequently, whether there is a risk of infringement for BOE is yet to be confirmed in the ITC and district court hearings.
In fact, BOE is not the only one fighting the battle, in some invalidation cases against Samsung Display, the list of co-applicants with BOE includes TCL CSOT (TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology), Tianma Microelectronics, Visionox, which are all leading Chinese enterprises in OLED panel industry. However, according to the latest news released by USPTO in the evening of January 6, an invalidation challenge jointly started by the four companies against Samsung Display's 578 patent is considered to be rejected, for the four companies have failed to prove that the patent is lacking inventiveness.
In addition to the patent invalidation battle going on between the two sides (BOE and Samsung Display) in the U.S, their battle in China has also reached a fever pitch. In January 2024, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued an invalidation decision showing that Samsung Display had successfully invalidated BOE's Chinese patents, and in another invalidation decision in July 2024, BOE's patents were declared partially invalid. The rest of the cases are still pending.
