This research report provides a comprehensive review of the patent landscape in the emerging OLED Lighting industry. It is an invaluable guide to technology developers, patent departments, licensing departments, and business developers who want to develop technology and patent strategies.

The OLED Lighting industry is developing fast, with more than 90% of the patents being filed since 2002

This latest research report from cintelliq analyses patent filings in the OLED Lighting industry and finds that during the period 2009-2010 the total number of patents published grew by 56% from 1,767 to 2,760, this explosive growth shows no sign of slowing down for the foreseeable future. Traditional lighting companies continue to take a leading role in the OLED lighting industry with an impressive growth of more than 260 patents. During the same period device patents growth was the highest in terms of absolute numbers, but the highest growth rate was in terms of patents for 'ancillary' aspects of OLED panels - such as drimmer units, power units, mountings and fixtures. Applications patents, materials, fabrication and outcoupling all grew by more than 50%. One observation worthy of note is the increasing number of patents that make reference to both LED and OLED as the solid-state light source. Suggesting that from an application persepctive these two different light sources are considered interchagable.

The commercialisation of OLED lighting continues to accelerate, with a growing list of companies announcing their intention to enter the market. Although traditional lighting companies are active, seeking to safeguard their position with regards to OLED lighting, there are many new entrants that want to challenge these incumbents and shift the dynamics of the industry. Companies are beginning to scale-up the manufacturing of OLED lighting panels, at the same time product performance is rapidly improving both will have an impact on product and process innovation.

OLED technology is fast becoming a viable choice for energy efficient next generation lighting. While OLED technology was first discovered in the mid 1980s it was only once device architectures and materials systems where commercially available in the late 1990s that OLED technology was considered as a possible next lighting technology. Since 2000 there has been continual increase in technology development of OLED for lighting, largely driven by the traditional lighting companies such as Philips, Osram, GE and Panasonic seeking to secure ultra efficient lighting technology, as well as technology providers such as Universal Display, Cambridge Display Technology, Kodak and Novaled pushing their technology know-how beyond the display sector. This increase in technology and product development has lead to an explosive growth in the number of OLED lighting patents being filed. This increase in patent filings coincides with increases in Government funding of OLED lighting projects that has occurred since 2000, most notably in Europe, The United States, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. Increases in patent filing is driven primarily by companies seeking to claim technology domains that will enable them to move forward unhindered whilst raising the barrier for their competitors.

“This latest report OLED lighting: A review of the patent landscape identifies more than 2,760 patents focused on white OLED technology for lighting applications, and is an essential resource for developing a company’s technology development and roadmap”, said Craig Cruickshank, lead analyst cintelliq Limited. Craig added, “As OLED lighting continues to gain market adoption this too will also be a primary driver for further innovation within the industry leading to increases in patent filings as companies seek to secure exclusive technology domains.”

This research report aims to answers key questions that include

• How many patents are being filed each year?
• Who has filed early IP?
• Which companies are active filing OLED Lighting patents?
• What areas of innovation are being pursued?
• Which industry sector is the most active?
• Who has filed the most IP and in what areas of innovation?

What is provided in the patent dataset?

The patent dataset provides summary details of each patent, using this dataset and the inbuilt Pivot table facility of Excel it is possible to perform further analysis of the patents. This dataset allows the user to drill down into the dataset, and then to read detailed patent data on espacenet.

Each patent record contains more than 20 bibliographic and classification data fields:

The bibliographic data is derived from the front sheet of the patent:-

• Patent / Publication No | Assignee | Title | Abstract | Publication Date | Publication Year | Publication Qtr | Patent Status | PTO | Priority Country | Priority Year | Academic | Inventor (first only) | International Class (primary) | ECLA (primary) | US Class (primary) | Document Kind | Corrections

The cintelliq classification data fields provide further detail to enable the patent dataset to be grouped and clustered into industry sectors, technology innovations clusters, and corporate groups:-

• Group Patent Assignee - Grouping of assignees by corporate ownership
• Company Type - Industry sector mapping - Individual companies (assignees)
• Group Company Type - Industry sector mapping - consolidated
• Patent Classification - High-level classification of the patent

Who should buy this report?

This report is aimed at the researcher who initially needs a comprehensive overview of the patent landscape, and once they have understood the comprehensive overview need to conduct more detailed research on key areas of interest. The report is aimed at the researcher who wants to spend more time concentrating on analysis and understanding the patent landscape rather than searching for relevant patents. This report will enable you to identify the leading organisations filing OLED Lighting patents, when they filed, what patents have been granted, what are the main technology areas where filings have occurred, and which industry sectors are the most active.

What does this report offer?

This report offers a comprehensive overview of the patent landscape enabling you to easily identify key areas of interest. The accompanying patent dataset enables you to drill down to the next level of detail. The patent data is organised in a pivot table and pivot chart enabling you to perform your own analysis. All patents provide links to the online espacenet website where you can read more details on patents of interest.

How good is the data?

cintelliq has been providing organic semiconductor patent data since 2004, this includes quarterly patent reports, special topic reports, and supplying custom specific datasets.