​It is tough to compete against companies like Samsung, LG, Apple (AAPL) and Xiaomi (1810.HK) in the smartphone market, it is even harder if you are a ‘unicorn’ that came out of the chute with a ‘first’ that seems to have put to shame those who had such huge developmental resources.  Such was the case with Royole (pvt), a company founded by Bill Liu and a group of Stanford engineering graduates in 2012.  The company has received financing from a number of VCs totaling over $1.1b and was the first company to make available a foldable display, albeit only to developers. 
The company has been in the tech press many times as it released various odd-ball products  containing its flexible OLED displays but has been unable to gain real traction with smartphone brands, other than ZTE (000063.CH).  Royole submitted documentation to be admitted to the Shanghai STAR Exchange, but terminated the listing (Royole also failed to qualify for listing in the US in 2019) and rumors of missed payments to employees began to surface late last year as employees began to post on social media about the missing wages, with statements that September wages were only paid in part and no wages were paid in October.  At that time it was said that e-mails from the company’s founder stated that the company was working on financing and that wages would be paid in January of this year, with rumors of new financing raising the hopes of employees.  Some of the wage arrears were paid in January, with the promise the rest would be paid after the New Year festival, however that has yet to happen and what little information that is available about the company, seems to indicate that production and yields at the company’s OLED fab are so low that it would be difficult to attract additional financing.  While the company has partnered with a number of prominent luxury brands for one-off products, it seems that Royole is beginning to slip into the limbo where small display manufacturers who are unable to compete often go to slowly pass into display history.
  

While Hisense (009921.CH) is a relatively new TV brand in the US, it is the 4th largest TV manufacturer worldwide, and grew TV sales in the North American market by 34.3% and in the US by 65.1% at the mid-point of this year.  LG Electronics (066570.KS) is the 2nd largest TV brand in the US, and while not growing as fast as Hisense, has an almost 18% share of the North American market.  LG also owns a number of patents involving LED backlighting and networking that have been used by Hisense in a variety of TV products assembled in Mexico and then sold in the US.  In particular, when a TV is used as a ‘smart’ device, meaning it is connected to the internet directly, it can use protocols that are covered by a number of LG’s patents, as do a number of the Hisense TV sets sold here.
LG notified Hisense of potential patent violations at the end of January and widened that notification in June, entering into a back and forth letter exchange between the two companies that continued until they met in China last July.  Again, letters passed back and forth, with LG entertaining the idea of license negotiations, but Hisense continually asked for additional information while maintaining sales of the affected products in the US.  Yesterday LG filed a complaint against Hisense for the unlicensed use of their backlighting, WLAN technology, and two additional patents.  LG is asking for an end to the infringement, adequate compensation, and court costs, which will likely translate into a final license fee that gets negotiated right before the trial begins.