SAMSUNG NEC MOBILE DISPLAY LICENSES KODAK OLED TECHNOLOGY.

Eastman Kodak Company granted a limited, royalty-bearing license of its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology to Samsung NEC Mobile Display Co., Ltd. (SNMD), for the manufacture and sale of full-color passive-matrix OLED display devices in a specific model mobile telephone.

Under this agreement, Kodak granted SNMD a non-exclusive right to use Kodak display technology, which includes OLED manufacturing processes and device structures, to make and sell a limited number of passive-matrix color displays. SNMD sold most of these displays to NEC for NEC's advanced model mobile phones sold in 2001.

"We're pleased to have reached this amicable agreement and resolved our patent issues over the displays in the 3G mobile phone. Our OLED technology is ideal for displays in such devices," said Leslie Polgar, president, Display Products, Eastman Kodak Company. "The goal of our licensing program is to extend this technology into such markets."

Last month Kodak announced a joint venture with SANYO Electric Company, the SK Display Corporation, to manufacture active-matrix displays for the two parent companies. Kodak and SANYO will market and sell the displays independently.

Kodak pioneered the development of OLED in the late 1980s and has since generated more than 100 U.S. patents, either issued or filed, as well as corresponding patents around the world. Besides Samsung SDI, NEC, and SNMD, Kodak's OLED licensees include DENSO CORPORATION, eMagin Corporation; Lite Array, Inc.; Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd.; Pioneer Corporation; Rohm, Ltd.; Ritek Corporation; TDK Corporation; TECO Electric & Machinery Co., Ltd.; and SANYO Electric Co., Ltd., a Kodak joint-development partner and co-owner of the SK Display Corporation.