Samsung has applied for the trademark of “Samsung QLED” at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), according to BusinessKorea. Samsung will reportedly abandon OLED TVs to focus on QLED TVs.

Samsung applies for QLED trademark
The trademark application was submitted on June 27, according to industrial sources who spoke to BusinessKorea. The trademark will apply to QLED broadly, covering TVs, smartphones and monitors.

Samsung already sells LCD TVs equipped with quantum dots but QLED is a new type of display without the need for LC (liquid crystal) filters. In many ways QLED resembles OLED but instead of using organic material as the active element it uses quantum. As such a QLED display is a self-emitting display.

In May 2016, it was reported that Samsung intends to skip OLED TVs to focus on QLED TVs. Samsung has reportedly not been capable of reducing production costs for OLEDs like LG has.


BusinessKorea notes that in the past Samsung has introduced a product within one to two years after applying for a trademark. However, QLED TVs are not expected to be available until 2018 or 2019.

QLED could prove to be an important new development in the industry but Samsung has yet to exhibit a QLED prototype of any kind. Both LG and Samsung exhibited OLED panels for several years before introducing them.

- Source: BusinessKorea