Korea Ranks No.1 Worldwide in 'OLED Core Technology' Patent Applications... Led by Samsung and LG

Trends in Patent Applications by Applicant Nationality Related to 'Compensation and Correction' Core Technologies for OLED Display Driving from 2011 to 2020. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Over the past decade, the number of patents filed in Korea for core OLED technologies has been the highest among countries worldwide. In particular, Samsung and LG ranked first and second respectively among the top 10 companies filing patents in this field.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office on the 13th, in the patent filing trends related to display driving ‘compensation and correction’ technologies from 2011 to 2020 among the five advanced IP countries (Korea, USA, China, Europe, Japan, hereafter IP5), Korea filed a total of 5,384 patents, accounting for 43% of all patent filings in this field.

During the same period, China filed 3,273 patents (26%), Japan 2,433 patents (20%), and the USA 567 patents (5%).

In terms of the number of patents filed by companies, Samsung ranked first with 2,786 filings, and LG ranked second with 2,412 filings, showing that these companies are leading patent filings related to ‘compensation and correction’ in the display driving sector.

Among the top companies filing patents, Chinese display panel maker BOE filed 1,676 patents, ranking third, and Japanese R&D company Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL) ranked fourth with 907 patents.

‘Compensation and correction,’ one of the key technologies in display driving, is a technology that reduces characteristic deviations between pixels and prevents degradation to extend lifespan. It has recently gained attention as a core technology due to the rapid increase in OLED display pixels.

Yoon Nan-young, a patent examiner at the Display Examination Division of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, said, “Patent filings related to display driving were led by Japan from 2011 to 2015, but Korea surpassed Japan in 2016 and has maintained the top position since then. To maintain Korea’s advantage in display technology competition, securing patent rights for core OLED driving technologies is of utmost importance.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.