Invalidity dossier
US 6949389
Added 10/22/2026, 4:01:11 AM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 6,949,389 B2
Title: Encapsulation for organic light emitting diodes devices
Patent number / application: US 6,949,389 B2; Application US 10/137,163
Original assignee: Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH (later assignments to Osram GmbH and Pictiva Displays International Ltd are listed in the source but are not evaluated here)
Inventors: Karl Pichler; Kyle D. Firschknecht (spelling as given in the source)
Dates (per source): Priority/filing 2002-05-02; publication 2005-09-27. Source status: "Expired - Lifetime," with anticipated expiration 2022-05-02 (an assumption per the source, not a legal conclusion).
Purpose: To protect OLED devices from environmental damage, primarily oxygen and moisture, by "direct thin-film encapsulation" instead of the conventional glass lid with an epoxy border. The source states advantages over the prior art are primarily cost reduction and improved reliability, with a package that may be thinner, lighter, and/or mechanically more flexible. A separate glass plate, epoxy seal, and getter may be excluded.
Plain-language scope (from the excerpt): The disclosure describes a "PML" encapsulation structure in which a planar organic layer (e.g., acrylate) is deposited over the OLED, followed by a barrier layer (e.g., sputtered metal, metal-oxide, or dielectric), and this pair may be repeated for additional protection. Planarization helps avoid pinholes in the barrier. For mass production, OLEDs are formed in rows and columns on a large glass sheet, each with an electrical contact area; the organic layer is deposited over the entire sheet, cured (UV, electron-beam, thermal, or as evaporated/plasma-deposited material such as Parylene), followed by the barrier layer, and devices are then singulated, for example by scribe-and-break lines. Embodiments include depositing the planarization layer as an "unpatterned liquid film," use of a mask, and a gas nozzle deposition system, with figures showing side views of the structures and processing steps. The excerpt notes that leaving the PML layer over scribe/break lines or glue lines may cause delamination and degrade package integrity.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6949389/en
Not established by the excerpt: The full text of the claims (only fragments appear), the complete specification and figures, the exact number and scope of embodiments, and any details of the gas-nozzle system beyond its listing. Litigation, ownership transfers, validity, and prior art are outside this overview by instruction.
Generated 10/22/2026, 4:10:48 AM
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Litigation summary
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PTAB challenges
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Assignment history
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Prior art
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.