Samsung Corning Advanced filed zero patents in 7 years
Likely focused on production only
Samsung Corning Advanced Glass has filed almost no patents for the past seven years, TheElec has learned.
The company filed patents actively after being founded but this has dropped and is acting more as a production-focused entity.
This contrast with Corning Precision Materials, formerly called Samsung Corning Precision Materials, that was sold to Corning in 2014. The company actively filed new patents up to 2013 __ a total of 1,048 after 1993, the year it was formed. 266 patents remain registered and 194 of them were filed after 2010.
Samsung Corning Advanced Glass is a joint venture between Samsung Display and Corning, with each owning half of the shares.
It has been producing glass and targets for organic light emitting diode (OLED) panels. Coring Precision produces glass substrates for liquid crystal display (LCD).
Samsung Corning Advanced Glass filed no patents in South Korea and the US from 2014 to 2020.
Out of the four patents filed after 2014, two were rejected and one as withdrawn by the company. There is only one pending patent.
The company has 27 patents in South Korea __ 21 of the patents were transferred from Corning Precision Materials in 2014.
Out of the remaining 6 patents, two of them were filed with parent company Samsung Display, in 2012 and 2013 Samsung Display recently gave up its rights over the two patents __ they are now wholly owned by Samsung Corning Advanced Glass.
Samsung Display is embroiled in a lawsuit with a former employee who claims that he was the inventor of the two patents.
Samsung Corning Advanced Glass filed four patents on its own. These patents were filed from 2011 to 2013, around the time when the company was formed, which is 2012. But there is barely any filings afterwards __ the company seem to lack its own research and development staff.
A company spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
A person familiar with the matter said either Samsung Corning Advanced Glass was used as a production company only while its parent companies could provide patent protection for subsidiary. Or the company could be filing patents with a different name as it was very rare, even for a joint venture, to have almost no patents, they said.
Meanwhile, Samsung Corning Advanced Glass decided to sell its target business based in Gumi to Chinese company Vital Materials, It will continue its Asan operation that produces OLED glass substrate.