Foldable Display Process Automation Patents: Top Filers & Trends 2026
- Filing has already peaked. Annual filings hit 141 in 2023 and have declined every year since, down to 9 in the partial 2026 year.
- Control software leads, not mechanics. G06F (digital data processing) and H01L (semiconductor devices) each cover roughly 618-619 of the 1,646 families — ahead of OLED-specific H10K claims.
- The leaders are stepping back. The top three most-active recent filers are all down sharply year-on-year, one by as much as 93%, while collaborative co-assignee filing stays rare at just 10 pairs total.
What this patent landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families combining foldable, flexible or rollable display technology with automated production-line processes — flexible OLED line automation, lamination automation and automated bonding. The corpus spans 1,646 published families filed between 2015 and the mid-2026 data cut-off, drawing on records filed primarily at the United States receiving office, with smaller but meaningful volume from Europe, Japan, India and the WIPO PCT route.
The technology composition splits across eight core IPC subclasses, from digital-processing control and semiconductor-device structure through to OLED materials, display-control circuitry and data-recognition systems. That spread shows automation inventiveness in this field being captured mainly at the control and device-integration layer rather than in dedicated mechanical-tooling claims.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trends and technology composition
Published filings in this dataset run from 2015 through the 2026 partial year, covering 1,646 total patent families. The shape of the trend and the spread across IPC subclasses both point to a field that expanded quickly, peaked, and is now consolidating around a smaller set of active filers.
Filing activity has passed its peak
Annual filings rose from 72 in 2017 to a peak of 141 in 2023, then declined through the midpoint year (128 in 2022) and into the most recent partial year (9 in 2026). Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the last one to two years understate true filing activity, but the multi-year decline from the 2023 peak is a genuine signal, not an artefact of the cut-off.
Control software and device structure dominate the IPC mix
G06F (digital data processing) and H01L (semiconductor devices) each account for 618-619 records, roughly matching each other and outpacing H10K (OLED-specific, 376) and G09G (display control circuits, 367). B41J (typewriters and printers, 423 records) is a notable presence, reflecting how roll-to-roll and print-media handling technology has been repurposed for flexible-panel lamination and bonding automation.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,646 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Foldable Display Process Automation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about foldable display process automation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Flexible display device (US20190172377A1)
A flexible display device includes a plurality of back bars coupled to the rear surface of a display panel, and a spacing member disposed up to a boundary between a non-display area and a display area such that the display panel can be prevented from being scratched and damaged by friction during the rolling of the display panel. According to the aspects disclosed herein, in a flexible display device capable of implementing a rollable display or a foldable display, when rolling a display panel, it is possible to prevent the display panel from being scratched or damaged.Filed by LG Display, published 2019-06-06. A panel-construction claim rather than a process-automation claim — it constrains mechanical stress-relief design, not lamination-line methods.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20080308641A1 | Smart card with switchable matching antenna | 527 |
| 2 | WO1999004368A1 | A camera with internal printing system | 431 |
| 3 | US6362868B1 | Print media roll and ink replaceable cartridge | 363 |
| 4 | US7234645B2 | Document having an encoded data structure | 319 |
| 5 | US6468638B2 | Web process interconnect in electronic assemblies | 308 |
| 6 | US20110001146A1 | Light-Emitting Device, Lighting Device, and Electronic Device | 300 |
| 7 | US6217165B1 | Ink and media cartridge with axial ink chambers | 244 |
| 8 | WO2000055915A1 | Web process interconnect in electronic assemblies | 241 |
| 9 | US6442525B1 | System for authenticating physical objects | 241 |
| 10 | US20150228803A1 | Semiconductor device | 235 |
High citation counts here reflect age and centrality in the prior-art graph within this searched corpus, not current commercial importance — the most-cited records date from earlier print-media and smart-card work that later automation filings had to build around.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern signals
Reading filing volume alongside recent-year momentum and citation patterns gives a more useful picture than either figure alone. Three signals stand out in this dataset.
The field has already crested
Filings climbed from 72 in 2017 to a peak of 141 in 2023, then fell through the 2022 midpoint level of 128 into a low partial-year 2026 figure. Even allowing for publication lag understating the last year or two, the multi-year post-2023 decline is a genuine slowdown signal.
Control and device claims outweigh materials claims
Digital-processing control (G06F) and semiconductor-device structure (H01L) each cover close to 620 records, well ahead of OLED-specific materials and structure claims (H10K, 376). Automation inventiveness in this space is being captured mostly at the control-software and device-integration layer.
Even the leaders are pulling back
The most recently active assignees are all filing less than they were a year prior, with drops ranging from -40% to -93%. That is consistent with a field where core claim positions have already been staked out and new filing has slowed rather than shifted to new entrants.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to foldable display process automation, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd | SILVEBROOK KIA | 13 |
| Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd | Chantiq Inc. | 8 |
| Alliance Technology Co., Ltd. | Avery Dennison Corporation | 3 |
| Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | MORIYA YOSHITAKA | 2 |
| Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | MIYAGUCHI ATSUSHI | 2 |
| Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | KAWAMATA IKUKO | 2 |
| Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | ARAI YASUYUKI | 2 |
| LG Display Co., Ltd. | Industry-University Cooperation Foundation Hanyang University | 2 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the full dataset, and the strongest of them involve a single cluster of related entities — evidence that most automation IP here is being developed and filed by single organisations rather than through joint ventures.
Who is filing, and where the activity is moving
Family counts alone overstate current commitment in a field where the leading filers are pulling back. Recent-year momentum and the make-up of co-assignee filing give a clearer read on where activity is heading.
Established leaders are filing less, not more
The assignees with the highest recent-year activity are all posting steep year-on-year declines — down 83%, 40% and 93% respectively across the three most active recent filers. That points to claim positions being consolidated rather than contested, and to a field where core combinations have largely been staked out.
Joint filing is the exception
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear across 1,646 families, and the strongest cluster involves a small set of related entities rather than cross-industry partnerships. Most automation IP here originates from single-organisation R&D rather than joint development programmes.
Filing is heavily US-weighted
The United States receiving office accounts for the large majority of filings, with Europe, Japan, India, WIPO PCT and Australia each contributing a much smaller share. A US-first filing strategy dominates this field far more than in many other display-technology categories.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | 4 | -83% |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Korea) | 3 | -40% |
| LG Display Co., Ltd. | 2 | -93% |
| Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd | 0 | — |
| SILVEBROOK KIA | 0 | — |
| Memjet Technology Ltd | 0 | — |
| Samsung Display Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Google LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The filing trend and technology composition point to specific next steps depending on whether you are assessing freedom to operate, scouting white space, or tracking competitors.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on mechanical stress-relief claims
Back-bar-and-spacer combinations and similar rollable-panel mechanical structures are concentrated among a handful of active holders. A targeted claim-chart comparison before finalising panel-construction design avoids the narrowest but most concrete overlaps.
Start a claim comparison in EurekaSearch the recognition-and-bonding intersection before drafting
G06K and G11C subclasses show volume in the wider corpus without a consolidated automation sub-theme, suggesting open claim space around in-line recognition and verification during bonding or lamination.
Search this white space in EurekaTrack momentum, not just cumulative counts
With the leading filers all declining year-on-year, a static leaderboard understates how much the competitive picture is shifting. Set up ongoing monitoring on recent-year filing activity rather than relying on total family counts alone.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCommon questions on foldable display process automation patents
Filing activity is concentrated among a small group of large display and electronics manufacturers, but recent-year momentum for the leading assignees is falling sharply rather than accelerating. That pattern — high cumulative volume paired with declining recent filing — means the leaderboard reflects work done several years ago more than current investment. Anyone evaluating freedom to operate should weight recent-year activity, not just total family counts, when judging which holders are actively expanding their position.
In this dataset it covers automated lamination, automated bonding, and flexible OLED production-line control — the equipment and software steps that assemble a flexible panel rather than the display technology itself. The IPC composition shows this expressed mainly through digital-processing control claims (G06F) and semiconductor-device integration claims (H01L), with a smaller but meaningful share drawing on printer and web-handling automation (B41J). It is a manufacturing-process category layered on top of the underlying flexible-display hardware.
No, not on the filing-trend evidence here. Annual filings rose from 72 in 2017 to a peak of 141 in 2023, then fell through 2022's midpoint level of 128 and into a much lower 2026 partial-year figure. Publication lag means the very last year or two is always undercounted, but the multi-year decline from the 2023 peak is consistent enough to read as a genuine slowdown rather than a reporting gap.
The subclasses tied to data recognition and memory (G06K and G11C) show meaningful filing volume in the wider corpus but are not concentrated into a distinct automation sub-theme the way digital-process control or OLED materials claims are. Combining in-line recognition or verification steps with bonding or lamination control is a technically specific area that current filers have not consolidated, and the low number of co-assignee pairs across the dataset suggests little collaborative filing has happened there yet.
This filing claims a specific mechanical combination — rear-mounted back bars plus a spacing member positioned at the boundary between display and non-display area — used to prevent scratching or damage during rolling of a flexible or rollable display panel. It is a panel-construction claim, not a manufacturing-process claim, so it constrains mechanical stress-relief design choices rather than lamination-line automation methods. Teams designing rollable mechanical structures should treat this specific back-bar-and-spacer combination as claimed and look at alternative stress-distribution geometries to avoid direct overlap.
Research Foldable Display Process Automation in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole foldable display process automation corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.