Patent Strategies and Patent Disputes for Securing Technologies and Materials in the OLED Display Industry

Present patent system and the standard of patentability have not kept pace with the rapid development of high technology industry. Global manufacturers who hold original material patents have been granted strategic patents that extend their monopoly beyond the legitimate scope or the length of time initially granted by the patent within the current regulatory framework in the OLED display market. The dominant firms wielding great market power in OLED industry have pursued a variety of strategic patentings including combination inventions and broadly claimed inventions, and as a result, their questionable patents have been challenged through patent invalidation trials brought by prospective infringers in Korea, Europe and Japan. These strategic patentings, however, may block competitors’ exploitation of its own invention, and thus may inhibit competitors’ entry into the market since competitors try to avoid infringing such patents, which results in the suppression of competition. As a result, such conduct adversely affects consumers' welfare to enjoy high quality and low price products, so, virtually, the dominant firms’ such conduct has triggered patent misuse concerns and antitrust scrutiny over predatory innovation. Therefore, it shall be the best solution to reinforce antitrust regulatory influence on the patent system and to harmonize Patent System and Antitrust Law by introduction of US Antitrust Law to IP Guidelines under MRFTA of KFTC to regulate anticompetitive conducts including predatory innovation.