US ITC Dismisses SK's Claim, Citing Past Non-Litigation Agreement Preventing LG Patent Lawsuit

LG Twin Towers (above) and SK Seorin Building (below) [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has dismissed SK Innovation's claim that the battery patent lawsuit filed by LG Chem cannot be established due to a past non-litigation agreement.

According to industry sources on the 9th, the ITC issued a summary judgment on the 5th accepting LG Chem's request that SK Innovation's claim regarding the non-litigation agreement in the battery patent lawsuit filed by LG Chem against SK Innovation is invalid.

LG Chem and SK Innovation had reached a non-litigation agreement in October 2014, agreeing not to engage in lawsuits or disputes for the next 10 years while they were involved in a patent dispute.

At that time, both companies agreed to "terminate all lawsuits and disputes related to the 'Registered Patent No. 775310' concerning ceramic coated separators that have continued since 2011," and "not to claim patent infringement prohibition, damages, or patent invalidation against each other domestically or internationally, either directly or through affiliates" in the future.

However, when LG Chem filed a trade secret infringement lawsuit with the ITC in April last year, SK Innovation filed a patent infringement lawsuit against LG Chem in September of the same year, and LG Chem filed a countersuit.

SK Innovation has argued that the patent infringement lawsuit filed by LG Chem falls within the scope of the 2014 non-litigation agreement, and that LG Chem's lawsuit itself constitutes a breach of the agreement, thus the lawsuit cannot be established.

LG Chem, however, countered that "the non-litigation agreement was limited only to the Korean patent (775310), and the Korean patent and the U.S. patent are completely separate due to the independence of patents in each country."

In this regard, SK Innovation also filed a lawsuit with the Seoul Central District Court in October last year requesting LG Chem to withdraw the lawsuit filed with the ITC, but in the first trial on August 27 this year, the Central District Court ruled that "the 2014 agreement cannot be interpreted as including a clause not to file lawsuits in the 'United States,'" dismissing SK Innovation's request to withdraw the lawsuit and rejecting related claims for damages.

With a similar ruling coming from the ITC as from the domestic court, SK Innovation is now engaged in legal battles not only over the trade secret infringement lawsuit filed by LG Chem with the U.S. ITC but also over the patent infringement lawsuit.

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