Panel Repair Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Concentrated ownership. the top 5 assignees hold 61.1% of all 18 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 94.4% — this is a field with almost no long tail left to claim around.
- Filing has cooled since 2019. the peak year for filings so far is 2019 at 4 records, with the trend easing off in the years since (publication lag means the last year or two will always look thinner than it eventually proves out).
- Optical control dominates the claims. G02F covers 55.6% of the 18 records, more than double the share of any other IPC subclass, with business-process and semiconductor-device classes trailing well behind.
Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 18 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What panel repair and rework patents actually cover
Panel repair and rework covers the methods used to salvage a display panel after a line defect, short or open circuit is detected on the array — laser-based cutting and bridge deposition, detection-before-repair workflows, and the substrate and wiring redesigns that make a panel repairable in the first place. The scope here spans 18 published records across a 2015–2026 window, drawn from receiving offices led by the United States, with China, the United Kingdom, Australia, India and Taiwan also represented. The dataset is small enough that individual filings move the picture — a single well-cited patent, such as the repairable-LCD filing discussed below, can anchor an entire technical direction.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent year in the trend understates real filing activity. Family-level counts, rather than raw document counts, are the fairer basis for judging concentration, and that is the basis used throughout this page.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 18 records: how filings moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings peaked in 2019 at 4 records and have not returned to that level since; 2026 is a partial year and should not be read as a drop-off.
IPC subclass composition
G02F (optical control and modulation) appears in 55.6% of the 18 records, well ahead of G06Q and H01L at 22.2% each — a record can carry more than one class, so these shares sum above 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 18 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Panel Repair and Rework Techniques with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about panel repair and rework techniques and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited filings in this dataset
Display panel repair method and display panel (US20200272007A1)
The filing discloses a display panel repair method built around a fan-out area between the active area and the panel edge, where multiple fan-out wirings connect the active area to the peripheral area. It adds auxiliary lines arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the fan-out wirings, giving the panel a built-in redundancy path that a repair process can switch to when a wiring defect is detected in that region.Filed by HKC Corporation Limited, published 2020-08-27.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6639634B1 | Repairable LCD and its manufacture | 43 |
| 2 | WO1999057661A1 | A system for modelling memory business parameters | 8 |
| 3 | CN108598094A | 一种显示装置及该显示装置的薄膜晶体管的修补检测方法 | 6 |
| 4 | US20210335984A1 | Array substrate and display panel | 4 |
| 5 | US20200272007A1 | Display panel repair method and display panel | 4 |
| 6 | US20210173268A1 | Method for repairing broken line, array substrate and active matrix display device | 2 |
| 7 | CN112517909A | 用于薄壁结构激光成形修复的仿形加厚板制造方法 | 1 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and favour older filings; they signal influence on later filings, not current commercial relevance.
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. Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (7 of 7 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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The ranking is short and the citation table is dominated by one older filing — both point to a field where the foundational repair architecture is settled and recent activity is narrower in scope.
Ownership sits with a small group
Five assignees account for 61.1% of all 18 records in scope, and the ranked leaders extend to just 11 companies covering 94.4% of records once the top 10 are included. There is very little room left for a new entrant to build a broad position without engaging the incumbents directly.
One early patent anchors the field
US6639634B1, "Repairable LCD and its manufacture," carries 43 citations within this corpus — more than five times the next most-cited record. Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings, so this reflects foundational influence rather than a claim that the technique is still the state of the art.
Activity has not returned to its 2019 peak
The filing trend peaked at 4 records in 2019 and has since eased, though the most recent years are understated by the roughly 18-month gap between filing and publication. A growth rate cannot be computed reliably from the years available.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to panel repair and rework techniques, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the panel repair claims, and where they are thin
The ranked field covers 11 companies, dominated by Chinese and Taiwanese display manufacturers with a smaller group of individual and cross-industry filers.
A single leader, then a narrow drop-off
The top-ranked assignee holds 3 of the 18 records in scope. From fifth place (2 records) down to tenth place (1 record), the field flattens quickly — most of the ranked companies are single- or double-filing entrants rather than sustained programmes.
Filing is US-weighted with a Chinese cluster
The United States receives 9 of the 18 records, with China contributing 3 and the United Kingdom 2. Australia, India and Taiwan each contribute a single record, indicating this is a technique still being protected mainly through US and Chinese filings rather than a broad multi-jurisdiction strategy.
No ranked assignee shows recent-year activity
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including the current leader, shows 0 filings in the latest year on record. Combined with the 18-month publication lag, this is more likely a visibility gap than a genuine stop in R&D, but it means the public record currently understates who is still active.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Semiconductor Display Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| AU Optronics (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Acuid | 0 | — |
| Everdisplay Optronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| KURSOV DMITRY VLADIMIROVICH | 0 | — |
| HKC Corporation Limited | 0 | — |
| Fujitsu Display Technologies Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a narrow, settled core with several thinly claimed adjacent branches. The next step depends on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate or new filing.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top 5
With 61.1% of records held by five assignees, any new repair method claim should be checked against those portfolios first rather than the full ranked list of 11.
Run an FTO scan in EurekaProbe the under-claimed sub-areas
Bridge deposition process control, repair throughput metrics and pre-repair defect measurement each carry a single-digit record count — worth a closer novelty search before assuming prior art blocks a filing there.
Explore white space in EurekaRe-check momentum after the lag window closes
Every ranked assignee shows zero recent-year filings, which is partly a publication-lag artefact. Re-run the trend once the 18-month window has closed to see whether activity has actually paused.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions on panel repair and rework patents
The ranked field covers 11 companies, with the leading assignee holding 3 of the 18 records in scope in this dataset. The top 5 assignees together account for 61.1% of all records, and the top 10 account for 94.4%, so ownership is concentrated among a small group of display manufacturers rather than spread widely. Beyond the top 10, filing activity drops to isolated single-record entrants, including cross-industry filers outside core display manufacturing.
The scope centres on laser-based line defect repair, short-circuit cutting, and bridge deposition methods used to reconnect or isolate faulty wiring on a display array after detection. It also includes detection-before-repair workflows and substrate designs, such as auxiliary redundancy lines, that make a panel repairable by design rather than only after the fact. IPC data shows G02F (optical control and modulation) is the dominant class, present in 55.6% of the 18 records.
Filing peaked at 4 records in 2019 and has not returned to that level in the years since, based on the trend data available. However, publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any patent trend will always look thinner than the true filing rate. A reliable growth rate cannot be computed from the years currently available in this dataset.
US6639634B1, titled "Repairable LCD and its manufacture," is the most-cited record in this dataset with 43 citations, far ahead of any other filing tracked. That weight of citation suggests it established foundational repair architecture that later filings built on or referenced, though citation counts inside a searched corpus tend to favour older records and should be read as a measure of influence rather than current commercial relevance. Anyone assessing freedom-to-operate in repairable-panel architecture should review this filing closely.
IPC classes tied to bridge deposition process control, repair equipment throughput and pre-repair defect measurement (G01R) each show only a handful of the 18 records, well below the 55.6% share held by G02F optical-control claims. Additive-manufacturing and powder-metallurgy approaches to repair (B33Y and B22F) are represented by a single record each. These thin-claimed branches are worth a targeted novelty search before assuming the space is occupied, since low record counts here reflect low filing density rather than technical infeasibility.
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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.