Battery Patent War Escalating
SK Innovation has vowed to respond sternly to battery patent infringement lawsuits filed by LG Chem against it. The company criticized LG Chem, saying that it went back on its word not to file a lawsuit against them five years ago. LG Chem countered that the latest lawsuit involves a patent that is different from the one five years ago.
SK Innovation criticized LG Chem's additional lawsuit on Sept. 29, saying, "LG Chem has recklessly filed the lawsuit, going against the public's hope to see Korean companies create a virtuous cycle through fair and cooperative competition among them."
"We will strongly respond to the lawsuit including taking all legal actions,” SK innovation added. The company wanted to address the issue through a dialogue while responding to the lawsuit but may take very stern measures, SK Innovation emphasized.
In particular, SK Innovation claimed that this additional lawsuit filed against SK Innovation by LG Chem include a patent that was included the 2011 special contract not to file a lawsuit signed between the two.
According to documents for LG Chem’s lawsuit filed with the International Trade Commission (ITC), LG Chem's patent on SRS, a key material for secondary batteries was the same as the patent that was included in the lawsuit won by SK Innovation in 2011, SK Innovation said. At the time, LG Chem lost the patent infringement lawsuit against SK Innovation and proposed negotiating for an agreement with SK Innovation. So, SK Innovation reached the agreement from the point of the general good. But LG Chem brought up the issue again in the latest lawsuit.
According to an agreement signed between the two in 2014, the two companies decided not to file a litigation over the patent such as the prohibition of infringing each other’s parents, not claiming for damages and the invalidity of patents among others, but LG Chem ignored the pact, SK Innovation claimed. .
However, in response to SK Innovation’s claim, LG Chem said, "The subject of the agreement at the time was a Korean patent, and the patent filed this time is about a U.S. patent." “The so-called “patent independence (the principle of territorial privilege for jurisdiction) principle" stipulates that a patent is independently acquired and retained in each country," LG Chem added. “The patent that, we claim this time, SK Innovation allegedly infringed is a separate patent that differs from the previous patent included in a lawsuit filed in Korea in the past in terms of the scope of the right."
“As a result, our U.S. patent in the lawsuit filed this time was also included in a patent infringement lawsuit filed to the ITC against a famous battery company called ATL,” an LG official said. "We have a very strong patent portfolio holding about 800 patents with respect to SRS technology."