[Patent Talk] LG-SK Battery Litigation Concludes After Two Years

This column by patent attorney Taeyoung Lee of our firm was published in Etoday on February 1, 2021. It discusses the litigation between LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation, in which the ITC recently issued an exclusion order.

[Patent Talk] LG-SK Battery Litigation Concludes After Two Years

A complete victory for LG Chem... SK Innovation faces an astronomical settlement

On the 10th (local time), the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favor of LG Energy Solution (formerly the battery division of LG Chem) in its battery trade secret misappropriation case against SK Innovation. In its decision, the ITC issued a "limited" exclusion order barring the manufacture in and import into the United States of certain SK Innovation batteries for ten years. It is a complete victory for LG.

The trade secret dispute between LG and SK dates back to 2017. It began when 76 key employees of LG Chem's battery division moved to SK Innovation. Claiming that a large volume of trade secrets had been leaked in the process, LG filed for a preliminary injunction in December 2017 to bar five of those employees from working for a competitor. LG then filed trade secret misappropriation suits with the US ITC and the District of Delaware in April 2019, and in May of the same year filed a criminal complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency alleging leakage of industrial technology.

At this point, one might wonder whether LG is reacting emotionally toward SK. Indeed, this is not the first patent dispute between LG and SK. In December 2011, LG sued SK Innovation for infringement of its separator patent but lost after some three years of litigation. That is why LG seems to be trying to restore its reputation through this trade secret case.

However, LG's persistence in the trade secret litigation does not appear to be driven by emotion alone. LG is unquestionably the dominant player in the EV battery market, holding well over 15,000 patents from more than ten years of R&D. Against this backdrop, many of its key personnel left for SK Innovation, and in November 2018 SK Innovation was selected as a "strategic battery supplier" by Volkswagen, so it is only natural that LG felt a sense of crisis.

It is SK Innovation that now faces an urgent problem. President Biden may exercise a veto within 60 days, but the likelihood does not appear high. Because of the ITC's decision, SK ...

(Please click the link below to read the full column.)

LNB IP Law Firm