Samsung is at war with BOE Display over OLED technology as covered in three reports from 2023: 01, 02 and 03. Both companies vie for Apple’s display business. We’re now learning that BOE has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Display in the United States.

Industry insiders are interpreting this as a countermeasure to the patent infringement lawsuits filed by Samsung Display against BOE last month, as well as a move to promote the company in China.

According to industry sources on the 29th, BOE filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Display in the Eastern District of Texas Federal Court on the 27th (local time). In the complaint, BOE stated that Samsung Display's organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology used in the under-panel camera (UPC) of Samsung Electronics' book-type foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Fold series, infringed on four of its patents.

UPC is a technology that places the camera under the panel, so when the camera function is not in use, this area functions like a regular display. Because it also performs the camera function, the OLED in the UPC area has a lower pixel density than the rest of the regular display area, and its structure is also different. Instead of the pixel density in the UPC area being sparse, it receives light through the area without pixels.

The four patents that BOE claims were infringed are: Display panel and manufacturing method thereof (US11,037,994); Display substrate and driving method thereof, and display device (US12,266,309); Display substrate and driving method thereof, display device (US12,307,976); Array substrate, display panel, and display device (US11,695,017). For more on this, read the full report by The Elec.