US ITC: "SK Inno Does Not Infringe LG Battery Patents"

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[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled in favor of SK Innovation in a preliminary decision regarding the battery patent infringement case filed by LG Energy Solution against SK Innovation.

On the 31st of last month (local time), the U.S. ITC issued a preliminary decision stating that SK Innovation did not infringe on patents related to battery separators, which were the subject of LG Energy Solution's infringement claims.

In September 2019, LG Energy Solution filed a lawsuit with the ITC, alleging that SK Innovation infringed on four U.S. patents, including three related to battery separators and one related to cathode materials. This lawsuit stemmed from a recent battery trade secret infringement case that was ultimately decided in favor of LG.

The ITC specifically recognized the validity of the SRS 517 patent related to separator coating but decided that SK did not infringe this patent. For the remaining three patents, the ITC ruled that they were not valid.

With SK Innovation successfully defending itself in this patent infringement dispute, attention is turning to whether this will impact ongoing negotiations between the two companies regarding trade secret infringement.

A representative from LG Energy Solution stated, "We plan to review the detailed contents of the preliminary decision and proceed with the remaining litigation procedures to have the patent infringement and validity recognized. Regarding the SRS® patents related to separator coating, since the core 517 patent has been recognized as valid, we intend to prove infringement. For the SRS®152 patent and the cathode material patent, which were found to be infringed but invalid, we plan to seek recognition of their validity."

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