China's largest screen supplier to Apple, BOE, found guilty of stealing Samsung's technology, its products will be banned in the US
In July 2025, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a preliminary ruling: BOE and seven of its subsidiaries violated the rules on Samsung's OLED technology by using patented solutions without permission. The Commission has imposed a ban on the import of new panels and the sale of already imported ones.
In 2024, Samsung already won a similar victory - the ITC recognised the infringement of three Samsung OLED patents by BOE, although no ban was applied at the time.
This litigation is different from the usual patent litigation in the US. The court proved that BOE hired former Samsung employees, poached Samsung's suppliers, and otherwise tried to obtain Korean technology.
The final decision will be announced in November. If nothing changes, the import and sale of BOE's OLED panels will be banned for 14 years and 8 months. In a statement, the ITC said: "Despite Samsung Display's excellent security measures, BOE obtained and used Samsung Display's trade secrets through misappropriation,".
What the ban means
BOE is prohibited from importing, selling and advertising its products. It is also prohibited from importing panels for non-commercial use (e.g., promotional samples for trade shows).
About Samsung Display
Samsung founded Samsung Display in 1997 and since then has been spending huge amounts of money every year to develop new technologies. This allowed the company to win the Sony TV market and hold the first place for 19 years. The company's portfolio includes hundreds of patents related to both LCD technology (the proprietary PLS technology is a subspecies of IPS) and OLED. Samsung has actually become the pioneer of OLED, actively developing new technologies and implementing them in real devices.
BOE, founded in 1993 by the Chinese government, acquired a Taiwanese LCD production facility in 2003. Despite the large investments in building modern production lines and buying other companies, nothing is known about the company's investments in research and development of new technologies.
And what about Apple?
Apple has been buying LCD panels from Samsung for a long time, later switching to LG products. But in 2021, the company also started working with BOE. After the iPhone switched to OLED, Samsung and LG regained the lead in the supply of iPhone screens, leaving BOE with only a 20% share of supplies. The situation with Apple computers is quite different - BOE supplies more than half of the monitors for them.
What it all means
It is unlikely that BOE will have significant problems. The modern legal world allows it to rename OLED technology and re-import panels to the US. Besides, the production of iPhones is still outside the US. Therefore, Samsung cannot expect to be compensated for the damage it has suffered.
The BOE has much more significant problems for another reason. BOE has been a Chinese state-owned company since its inception and is still a state-owned company. This means that under the current administration in the White House, its activities in the United States will be subject to the sword of Damocles. Even if Trump is as lenient with the BOE as he was with TikTok, the likelihood of a very sharp change in course will affect the company's long-term plans.
In fact, this is already happening. We have already heard statements that US suspects: Apple supplier BOE could be a Chinese military company. Apple has already stated in advance that iPhones with BOE screens will be sold only in China, as the market there is immensely large.
The panels for computers are a much bigger headache for Apple. Their share is much larger, and Apple cannot afford to sell more than half of its MacBooks in China. And worse, MacBooks are already largely manufactured in the United States, where these components can no longer be imported. That is, it is in Apple's computers that components will change significantly in the near future. Unless, of course, Tim Cook presents Trump with a MacBook the size of the lawn in front of the White House. This decision may also affect the timing of the MacBook's transition to OLED.
Source: www.sammobile.com
