The War of the Korean Tech Giants: Battle Display is approaching a detente. LG Display has dropped its request for a domestic sales ban on rival Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1, reports Yonhap News Agency. The world’s two top display makers (Samsung is in the number one spot) have been warring over organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel patents by slapping each other with lawsuits since September. LG had sought the sales ban in response to an injunction Samsung filed against LG’s products based on Samsung’s confidential OLED tech.
It looks like Samsung and LG, cornerstones of South Korea’s economy, are sticking to their decision earlier this month to settle their patent dispute through mediation instead of in court, a move they reportedly made in order to keep the situation from escalating further. Rivalry between the two, however, remains just as intense. The fued over OLED tech stretches back to 2011 when Samsung suspected that several of its researchers had leaked details of its OLED tech to LG Display. Six LG Display employees were charged with the theft of Samsung’s technology in July, as Samsung demanded a formal apology. In response, LG Display insisted that the information obtained was industry-wide knowledge and did not constitute a trade secret.
Instead of litigation, LG Display now wants to claw its way to the top of the display market by investing more than $600 million to mass produce thinner, more energy efficient OLED panels for televisions, though analysts are skeptical about whether that will help it beat Samsung Display. According to the Wall Street Journal, analysts don’t expect OLED TVs to contribute to either company’s bottom-lines soon due to the difficult manufacturing process and low production yields.
The LG Group is South Korea’s third largest conglomerate that produces electronics, chemicals, and telecommunications products and operates subsidiaries like LG Electronics, LG Telecom, Zenith Electronics and LG Chem in over 80 countries.
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