EPO Issues Decision On Universal Display's Iridium L2MX Composition Patent

(RTTNews) - Universal Display Corp. (OLED) said Monday that the European Patent Office has issued a decision on the company's European Patent No. 1933395.

After considering legal and technical arguments from Sumitomo Chemical Company, Merck Patent GmbH and BASF SE in support of their request for a complete invalidation of the claims, the European Patent Office panel issued a decision that affirms the basic inventions and broad patent coverage in the '395 patent, but narrows the scope of the original claims.

Universal Display said it will likely appeal the ruling to reinstate a broader set of claims. The patent, as originally granted by the European Patent Office, would be deemed valid during the pendency of an appeals process.

EP '395 is one of more than sixty patents issued worldwide that cover four early fundamental phosphorescent OLED inventions developed at Princeton University and the University of Southern California, which are exclusively licensed to Universal Display. Universal Display's L2MX composition patents are directed to an important group of metal complexes utilized as a component of OLED emissive materials. They have been issued in major jurisdictions around the world and are not set to expire until late 2020.