US ITC: "SK Inno's Malicious Evidence Destruction... Clear Damage to LG Chem"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) stated that SK Innovation's malicious evidence destruction obstructed a fair and efficient trial.

On the 22nd, the ITC released the judgment document detailing the basis for the 'Initial Determination' of early loss in the trade secret infringement lawsuit between LG Chem and SK Innovation.

The judgment stated, "Trade secret infringement lawsuits are particularly sensitive to acts of evidence destruction," and added, "This lawsuit faced significant difficulties due to evidence destruction and contempt of court, including violations of forensic orders."

According to the judgment, the destroyed evidence was directly related to the trade secret infringement claims made by LG Chem, and all issues in the lawsuit could be judged based on that evidence.

Accordingly, SK Innovation's evidence destruction not only harmed LG Chem's lawsuit progress but also became an obstacle for the judge to conduct a fair and efficient trial.

In particular, the ITC emphasized that this early loss decision is not merely a punishment against SK Innovation but "aimed at preventing similar violations that may occur in other cases."

Furthermore, according to the judgment, although SK Innovation's obligation to preserve evidence arose on April 9 of last year, it deleted or allowed deletion of documents related to the lawsuit.

The judgment additionally presented an Excel document stored in the recycle bin of a former LG Chem employee's PC, who was employed at SK Innovation, as evidence.

This Excel sheet, created on April 12 of last year, listed 980 deleted files related to LG Chem containing keywords such as LG, L company, and competitors.

Moreover, an internal email written in 2018 by a former LG Chem employee at SK Innovation included the phrase "Shouldn't we not have something like this?" along with detailed data on cathode and anode compositions and specifications owned by LG Chem.

Summarizing the specific evidence in the judgment, it was found that SK Innovation had been deleting documents related to trade secret infringement for several years, and it is expected to take considerable time to estimate the total damage scale.

Earlier, SK Innovation filed an objection to the initial determination on the 3rd, and the ITC must decide whether to review the objection by next month 17.

If the ITC accepts the review request, it is expected to decide by October 5 whether there was a violation of Section 337 of the U.S. Tariff Act and whether to impose import bans and other measures.

If the review request is rejected, the violation of Section 337 will be acknowledged as is, and only the final decision on related measures and bond will be made by October. During the 60-day presidential review period after the ITC's final decision, if SK Innovation posts a bond, the import ban effect will be temporarily suspended.

However, according to ITC statistics from 2010 to 2018, in all trade secret infringement cases, the ITC's initial determinations were upheld as final decisions. Therefore, industry experts predict that products related to SK Innovation's trade secret infringement are highly likely to be subject to import bans starting around October.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.