SK Innovation "Patent Litigation with LG Nearing Victory Both Domestically and Internationally"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] SK Innovation announced on the 6th that after more than 10 years, both domestic and international lawsuits related to the separator patent litigation with LG Energy Solution are concluding with victories for SK Innovation.

The separator patent lawsuit was first filed by LG Energy Solution in 2011, and SK Innovation won in 2013. At that time, both parties agreed not to engage in litigation on the same matter domestically or internationally for the next 10 years.

However, in 2019, during the trade secret infringement lawsuit at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), both companies additionally filed patent infringement claims. Recently, the ITC issued preliminary determinations on four patent infringement cases filed by LG Energy Solution, ruling three invalid and one non-infringement. Typically, preliminary determinations lead to final decisions.

Regarding the favorable preliminary decision, SK Innovation stated, "It has been recognized that SK's technology is independent and different from LG's patents," and argued that if a substantive verification of the technology had been properly conducted in the trade secret infringement dispute where SK lost, the outcome might have been different.

Im Soo-gil, Head of SK Innovation's Value Creation Center, said, "The separator patent litigation has been ongoing for 10 years, from Korea to the U.S. The company's consistent position is to respond strictly to normalize the abnormal situation, no matter how long it takes."

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