Foldable Display Materials Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 13 records, then declined toward the midpoint year of 2022 (6) — this is a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- Adhesives (C09J) outnumber glass compositions (C03C) 18 to 14, meaning the bonding layer between cover window and panel is more contested than the cover material itself.
- The United States receives more filings than any single national office (13), ahead of South Korea (8) and China (6), despite the technology's East Asian manufacturing base.
What this patent set covers
This landscape tracks patent families whose title or abstract names a foldable display, foldable screen or rollable display together with a specific materials claim — ultra-thin glass, colorless polyimide, optically clear adhesive or foldable cover material — and whose classification sits in glass compositions, polyimide chemistry or adhesive IPC codes. That combination isolates the materials layer of the foldable stack from the broader foldable-device literature, which is dominated by hinge mechanics and panel electronics filed elsewhere.
The set is small — 34 families across roughly a decade of publication — which is typical for a materials sub-field nested inside a fast-moving device category. Filing activity concentrates in a narrow window around 2019 to 2022, and the most recent years understate real activity because publication lags filing by around 18 months.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 34 families: when the claims were filed, and which IPC subclasses they sit in. Both point to adhesives and glass coatings as the active fronts, with display-signage and optical-element codes appearing as secondary, cross-filed classifications.
A filing peak already behind us
Activity rose from a single 2017 record to a peak of 13 in 2021, then fell to 6 by the 2022 midpoint. Read together with the 18-month publication lag, the honest interpretation is a claim space that filled quickly around 2019–2021 and has since slowed, rather than one still accelerating.
Adhesives lead glass by a narrow margin
C09J adhesive compositions account for 18 of the classified records against 14 for C03C glass and enamel compositions — the two core codes for this search. G09F display/signage codes (8) and G02B optical elements (6) appear as secondary classifications on records that also claim materials, while C08K, C08L, C09D and H10K each contribute a handful of cross-filed records.
Shares are the percentage of the 34 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Foldable Display Advanced Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about foldable display advanced materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this set
Foldable display apparatus and manufacturing method of adhesive layer of the same
A foldable display apparatus and a manufacturing method of an adhesive layer of the same are disclosed. A foldable display apparatus in the embodiments of the present disclosure includes a display panel, a polarizing plate being disposed on the display panel, a cover window being disposed on the polarizing plate, and an adhesive layer being disposed between the polarizing plate and the cover window, wherein the adhesive layer comprises a transparent part being disposed in a position corresponding to a display area of the display panel, and a colored part being disposed in a position corresponding to a non-display area of the display panel.Filed by LG Display, published 2023-03-30 as US20230099774A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN113583582A | 保护膜、保护膜组件、显示屏组件及终端 | 9 |
| 2 | CN112940617A | 超薄玻璃涂层材料、施工方法、耐冲击层结构及电子设备 | 7 |
| 3 | US20230315154A1 | Foldable Display Support Systems for Thinner Foldable Devices and Improved User Experience | 6 |
| 4 | KR102460270B1 | Antifouling and impact resistant coating materials, and application process for smart display and other elect… | 5 |
| 5 | CN113658513A | 显示面板及其制备方法、可折叠显示装置 | 5 |
| 6 | US20230174826A1 | Protective Film, Protective Film Assembly, Display Assembly, and Terminal | 5 |
| 7 | CN118006261A | 可折叠显示屏用丙烯酸压敏粘合剂及其粘合片 | 3 |
| 8 | US20230099774A1 | Foldable display apparatus and manufacturing method of adhesive layer of the same | 2 |
| 9 | US20240059935A1 | Photocurable adhesive film and preparation method thereof | 2 |
| 10 | EP4134409A1 | Protective film, protective film assembly, display screen assembly, and terminal | 2 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus, not current commercial importance — older records accumulate citations simply by being available longer.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the citation and classification pattern signals
The most-cited records cluster around two functions — impact-resistant coatings for cover materials and adhesive layers that manage the visible fold line — which is a narrower set of problems than the headline topic suggests.
Protective film claims draw the most follow-on citation
The highest-cited record in the set covers a protective film and protective film assembly for display screens — a sign that impact-resistant surface treatment for the cover layer is the reference point other filers build against.
Ultra-thin glass coating for impact resistance
A second heavily-cited record claims an ultra-thin glass coating material and construction method aimed at an impact-resistant layer, reinforcing that surface hardening of the glass — not the glass substrate itself — is where competitive claims sit.
Adhesive claims outpace glass composition claims
With more classified records in adhesives than in glass, the transparent-versus-colored adhesive segmentation seen in the representative LG Display filing looks like a recurring design pattern rather than an isolated claim.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to foldable display advanced materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
Filing is spread across device makers, materials suppliers and a long tail of smaller entrants, with no single assignee showing filing activity in the latest year — consistent with a peak-and-decline trend rather than an active buildout.
Display OEMs hold early filings, not recent ones
Assignees including major display panel makers and consumer electronics firms appear in the ranking with families dating to the 2019–2022 filing window, but none show activity in the most recent year — a pattern consistent with the overall peak having passed rather than any single firm exiting.
Glass and coatings suppliers anchor the C03C code
The glass and enamel composition subclass is smaller than adhesives but carries some of the most-cited individual records, suggesting suppliers of ultra-thin glass and its protective coatings compete on a narrower, more citation-dense set of claims.
No single assignee dominates a small field
Across 34 families the ranking includes individual inventors and smaller solution providers alongside large OEMs and chemical suppliers, indicating that filing volume alone has not been enough to establish a clearly dominant assignee in this materials niche.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Applied Materials, Inc. | 0 | — |
| LG Display Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| LG Chem, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Yongyou Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Samsung Display Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| ADD FINE TECH | 0 | — |
| 3M Innovative Properties Company | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, sourcing, or identifying a filing gap.
Check freedom-to-operate on adhesive segmentation
Because the transparent/colored adhesive-layer pattern recurs across multiple filers, any new adhesive-layer design should be checked against the C09J cluster specifically, not just against the most-cited records.
Explore adhesive claims in EurekaMap the colorless polyimide gap
Colorless polyimide appears in the search terms but is thin in the classified IPC breakdown relative to adhesives and glass — worth a targeted search before assuming the space is occupied.
Run a targeted search in EurekaWatch for renewed filing after the 2022 dip
With the most recent years understated by publication lag, a fresh pull closer to the 2026 cut-off would clarify whether the 2021 peak was cyclical or a genuine plateau.
Set a filing alert in EurekaCommon questions on foldable display materials patents
The dominant patented approaches in this dataset are ultra-thin glass with impact-resistant coatings, colorless polyimide films, and optically clear adhesives that bond the cover window to the polarizer and panel. Adhesive compositions carry the largest number of classified records in this set (18 under IPC C09J), ahead of glass and enamel compositions (14 under C03C). Coating durability for the glass surface, rather than the glass substrate itself, draws the heaviest citation activity among individual patents.
Filing in this niche is spread across display panel makers, materials suppliers and a number of smaller entrants, with 34 total patent families and no single assignee showing a dominant, sustained lead. Recent-year filing momentum is flat at zero across the named assignees tracked, which reflects the broader 2021 peak-then-decline trend in this dataset rather than any one company withdrawing. A ranking table breaks down family counts by assignee for closer review.
By IPC classification, glass and enamel compositions (C03C) account for 14 records against a broader adhesive category (C09J) at 18, with colorless polyimide claims folding into the smaller polymer-composition codes such as C08L rather than forming their own dense cluster. That imbalance suggests polyimide film chemistry is comparatively under-claimed relative to glass coatings and adhesive formulations in this specific dataset, though it remains one of the two named cover-material search terms.
The dataset shows filings rising to a peak of 13 in 2021 before falling to 6 by the 2022 midpoint, which lines up with the commercial launch window for early foldable phone generations that drove suppliers to lock in cover-material and adhesive claims ahead of mass production. Because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, the apparent decline after 2021 is partly a data artefact — the true 2024–2026 filing level will only become visible in later data pulls.
Combine device-level terms — foldable display, foldable screen, rollable display — with specific materials terms such as ultra-thin glass, colorless polyimide, optically clear adhesive and foldable cover material, restricted to IPC codes C03C, C08L79/08 and C09J7 as in this dataset. This narrows results to the materials layer and excludes the much larger literature on hinge mechanics and panel electronics that otherwise dominates foldable-device search results. Reviewing the most-cited records first identifies which specific claim patterns, such as segmented adhesive transparency, are already well established.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.