Universal Display announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) issued a decision regarding the company's EU patent #1933395 (the EP '395 patent, which details the iridium L2MX composition), which was challenged by Sumitomo Chemical, Merck and BASF. The EPO affirmed the basic inventions and broad patent coverage but narrowed the scope of the original claims.
I'm not a lawyer so it is difficult for me to understand exactly what the narrowing of those claims mean. UDC says that they are pleased with the fact that the EPO recognized the novelty in the invention and confirmed their rights to broad claim coverage in this class of molecules through 2020. They are likely to appeal the ruling to reinstate a broader set of claims.
In any case, UDC says that they do not expect the final outcome of any one patent in any one jurisdiction to have a material impact on the company's commercial business. This patent is one of more than 60 patents issued worldwide that cover four early fundamental phosphorescent OLED inventions developed at Princeton University and the University of Southern California. UDC says that the L2MX composition is an important group of metal complexes used in the company's PHOLED emitter materials.
Disclosure: the author of this post holds some shares in Universal Display
