BOE Technology Scores Complete ITC Victory Against Samsung Display

• An Orrick team achieved a complete victory in the ITC on behalf of our client BOE Technology in a case of importance to the OLED market and U.S. consumers. In a decision this week, the Commission found that BOE did not violate Section 337, affirming an Administrative Law Judge’s ruling from last November.
• Samsung Display (SDC) sought a general exclusion order that would have prevented nearly all third-party OLED replacement smartphone screens from being imported into the U.S. SDC initiated its attack on the OLED market by naming only small firms that import displays to fix users’ broken phones. BOE voluntarily intervened and joined the ITC investigation to bolster the end users’ defense in what otherwise would have been a David vs. Goliath battle with additional resources.
• The Commission’s decision of no violation ensures that U.S. consumers will continue to have access to affordable replacement OLED screens to repair their devices. Excluding non-SDC OLEDs would have reduced consumer choice and driven up prices for U.S. consumers. Further, it threatened fair competition in the OLED market and would have negatively impacted U.S. companies that supply materials or components for display manufacturing and reduced supply and design options for U.S. smartphone manufacturers.
• The outcome also rejects SDC’s use of the ITC to gain an unfair advantage in a commercial dispute between Korean and Chinese companies, at the expense of the U.S. public, reinforcing the proper bounds of the ITC’s role.

The Orrick team was led by partners Xiang Wang, Bas de Blank, Richard Martinelli and Wesley White, along with Sten Jensen, Johannes Hsu, David Medina, Tyler Miller, Harrison Geron, Elaine Ke, Angela Colt and Jordan Fernandes.