Samsung Display, the Korean behemoth’s display manufacturing arm, had around 2,000 LCD patents around the world and it handed over all of them to CSOT, The Elec reports. These include 577 patents registered in the US. The company transferred those in June this year and followed up with the transfer of patents registered in South Korea in August. It may have retained the rights to use the technology covered by those patents in its smartphones, though. This is to avoid potential lawsuits in the future. This has been coming for the past several years. Samsung began winding down its LCD business in 2016 when it shut down six LCD production lines. The company wanted to make room for Quantum Dot LED panels (QLED). It planned to entirely stop LCD production at the end of 2020. But a sudden rise in demand for LCD panels, and an induced price increase during the coronavirus pandemic mean it extended the deadline by a few months to make some money out of the LCD business for one last time. Now that the market has slowed down again, Samsung is calling it quits. Samsung operated LCD manufacturing lines at its Asan plant in South Korea and Suzhou plant in China. The company sold the latter to CSOT a few years back. Since Samsung owns shares in the Chinese firm, it’s no wonder the company is handing over LCD patents to CSOT as well. The Korean behemoth is also believed to have sold equipment from its Asan plant to multiple Chinese companies, including Efonlong.
Samsung will continue using LCD screens on its smartphones
Samsung stopping LCD production doesn’t mean the company will not make smartphones with LCD screens. Smartphones and displays are two separate business divisions of the Korean behemoth and they function independently, though they often work together. Perhaps Samsung is said to be increasing the use of LCD panels in recent years. However, with no in-house production, it will source LCD screens from other brands. CSOT should be its primary supplier going forward. BOE, another Chinese display manufacturing firm, has been one of its key LCD suppliers in the past. But Samsung is slowly forcing it out of its LCD supply chain due to royalty disputes. Industry watchers believe that Samsung and CSOT may now join forces against BOE in the display market.
