LG's New 55+ inch OLED Plant in China Opens: Over 1m+ per Year

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• BurntMyBacon - Tuesday, September 3, 2019 - link

  I'm sure it is a little more complicated than you or I understand, but everything I've seen and read suggests this is exactly what is happening in this industry. It is probably a good example of an abuse of the patent system that the system itself was not designed to prevent. Many patent systems are designed under the assumption that the people using it are proper innovators only looking to protect their investments and further fuel their innovations. They aren't made to prevent patent trolls or stop people from sitting on a single innovation and forcing royalties from any who wish to continue innovating. Also, the level of detail required to be call an innovation is often trivial, but most systems don't provide an adequate way to differentiate true innovation from the next logical step or functions provided by an auxiliary advancement in technology. I digress.

• FunBunny2 - Saturday, August 31, 2019 - link

  "Innovation costs money."
  
  name one person who got smarter by being paid more.

• RBFL - Monday, September 2, 2019 - link

  Money doesn't make people smarter but applying more time and effort to a problem does cost more.
  
  It also typically involves a level of failure, market development,... which are also expensive.
  
  Ideas may be cheap but developing real products is not.

• BurntMyBacon - Tuesday, September 3, 2019 - link

  @FunBunny2: "name one person who got smarter by being paid more."
  
  Want to find the most efficient way to get the job done? Give it to the laziest person on the crew. The point is, I find that the most innovative people are rarely the smartest. More often they are simply smart enough with an incentive to improve something (often times out of laziness) and with access to the necessary tools and resources to do so. Which brings me to my point: the smartest silicon designers in the world could not have created silicon microprocessors without ... SILICON. Inventing, innovating, and improving process technologies at the molecular and atomic level also requires the necessary tools to implement, measure, and evaluate. Putting these ideas into practice requires even more tools and resources (raw or processed materials).
  
  Many ideas in the microprocessor industry were thought of decades ago, but were beyond the (at the time) current technology to be implemented effectively if at all. As technology advanced, some of these ideas became practical, but implementation frequently deviates from how it was originally envisioned. Oh, and did I mention that it takes MONEY to buy these tools and resources and employ people to continue working on technology advancements to get to the point where you could implement the idea.
  
  Now consider that sometimes things don't work out (I.E. Intel's original foray into 10nm). It is hard to justify investing large quantities of money into projects with a high chance of failure if there is a high probability that someone else will receive the benefits. Remember, the people funding the projects are rarely the people responsible for the actual innovation. They are extremely concerned about return on investment.

• FunBunny2 - Tuesday, September 3, 2019 - link

  " Putting these ideas into practice requires even more tools and resources (raw or processed materials)."
  
  those are engineering concerns, not, strictly speaking IP or innovation. engineering doesn't innovate, only digs up some more of God's Laws. it's hubris to claim 'innovation' when it was God who actually did it. Mendeleev didn't invent the periodic table, even if he's widely credited with it. God built the elements and in such a way that they had 'family' characteristics. most everything in science and engineering isn't 'invented' by humans, but merely dug out of the muck of time. and much of 'innovation' was by accident; for this some human should be rich and have power over the rest of us?

• Vitor - Saturday, August 31, 2019 - link

  False. Because innovation doesnt happen in a vacuum, everybody gets inspiration from everybody. Ideas love to "mate" with each other.
  
  Now those billions waste on courts for the most stupid IP, now that is money that is going to lawyers instead of actual R&D.

• BurntMyBacon - Tuesday, September 3, 2019 - link

  I agree that innovation doesn't happen in a vacuum. In addition to getting inspiration from others, I'll add that new innovations can enable other innovations (similar to your mating of ideas comment).
  
  It is also undeniable that an inexcusable amount of money that should be funding R&D gets redirected to the legal departments of many companies.
  
  However, I don't see how that invalidates the idea that innovation costs money or that lack of any protection could have an undesirable effect on the pace of innovation. Consider that the people funding the kind of innovations that have a legal team behind them are rarely the people who are doing the actual innovating. These people are extremely concerned about return on investment.
  
  That said, the appropriate level of protection is certainly debatable and I don't know of a single system (or lack there of) out there that hasn't been abused.

• FunBunny2 - Tuesday, September 3, 2019 - link

  "However, I don't see how that invalidates the idea that innovation costs money or that lack of any protection could have an undesirable effect on the pace of innovation."
  
  there was a time, in the lifetimes of some still alive, when most 'innovation' was sponsored by the Damn Gummint and academia, and the fruits of that 'innovation' was part of the Public Capital. general growth of the economy and society was much greater than it's been since all that has been sequestered by Corporations. be careful what you wish for.
  
  I want to say one word to you. Just one word. linux.

• uibo - Saturday, August 31, 2019 - link

  What is the difference between 8.5G and 10.5G OLED-s?
  Add why would they give them names with .5-s?

• s.yu - Sunday, September 1, 2019 - link

  Good question!