Assignment history

Inventors

• Won-Se Lee (Employer: Samsung Display Co Ltd)
• Won-Kyu Kwak (Employer: Samsung Display Co Ltd)
• Se-Ho Kim (Employer: Samsung Display Co Ltd)

All named inventors were employed by Samsung Display Co Ltd at the time of filing, which is a standard pattern for corporate patent applications. There are no unusual patterns suggesting a portfolio fire-sale.

Original assignee

Samsung Display Co Ltd is the original assignee named on the issued patent US9299730. This entity actively ships products embodying the claims, specifically organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and thin film transistor (TFT) array substrates. Their primary line of business is the research, development, and manufacturing of display panels. Samsung Display Co Ltd is currently an operating company.

Assignment timeline

The USPTO Patent Assignment Search (https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/) indicates no recorded assignments for US Patent 9299730 subsequent to its grant. This means the patent ownership remains with the original assignee, Samsung Display Co Ltd, as recorded at the time of patent grant, and no subsequent transfers have been officially recorded with the USPTO Assignment Branch.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9299730
    2013 : Filed by Samsung Display Co Ltd
    2016 : Issued to Samsung Display Co Ltd

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. There are no recorded assignments, thus no transfer to a shell entity.
2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. No known Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs) appear in the ownership chain, as there are no recorded transfers.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. No assignment chain exists, so no recurring correspondents are observed.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. No transfers have been recorded for this patent.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — not present. No transfers have been recorded. While litigation was filed in 2025 (IPR2025-01499 and 2:25-cv-00426), there were no recorded transfers preceding these actions, which took place nine years after the patent's issuance.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. Samsung Display Co Ltd remains an active, operating company, and there is no indication of bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — unclear. While Samsung Display is an operating company, without specific disclosures (e.g., in SEC filings) or investigative reports, it is difficult to definitively confirm or deny privateering. However, the litigation noted appears to be direct assertion.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent remains under the ownership of Samsung Display Co Ltd and has not been transferred to a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The patent US9299730 is currently owned by its original assignee, Samsung Display Co Ltd, as confirmed by the absence of recorded assignments on the USPTO Assignment Center. Samsung Display Co Ltd is an operating company that manufactures products, such as OLED displays, which embody the claims of this patent. The initiation of litigation in 2025 appears to be a direct assertion by an operating company against infringers, rather than a transfer to an NPE.

USPTO Assignment Center search: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (search for patent number 9299730).