The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), which gave the hands of LG Energy Solutions in the lawsuit for infringing the trade secrets of electric vehicle batteries, clarified once again that SK Innovation infringed on trade secrets. It is explained that SK infringed 22 trade secrets from LG in 11 fields, and through this, it was able to operate the business more than 10 years ahead of its competitors, even though it was a latecomer in the battery market.
On the 4th (hereinafter referred to as local time), the ITC published a’Commission Opinion from LG Energy Solutions and SK Innovation’s ITC Confidential Infringement Litigation on its official website.
Prior to that, on the 10th of last month, the ITC made a final decision to ban US production and import of some of SK Innovation’s lithium-ion battery cells, modules, and packs for 10 years. The ITC cited the default judgment decided in February last year in the final judgment.
ITC explained that in a final judgment covering a total of 96 pages, it was clear that SK Innovation infringed on the trade secrets of LG Energy Solutions. At the same time, “Trade secrets 2, 8, 31, 33, 60, 66, 80, 81, 84, 94, 95, 96, 97, 117, 119, 124, 138, 139, 144 , 145, 146, 147 in violation of the United States imports, sales for import, and after import in the United States sales in the United States in violation of Article 337 of the Customs Act.
Regarding the reason for citing the early loss ruling, the ITC said, “The committee judged that SK’s destruction of evidence was at an extraordinary level.” It was carried out by SK company-wide (through SK),” he said. He also said, “As a result of reviewing SK’s arguments and taking into account the investigation situation, we judged that a lower level of legal sanctions against SK was not valid.”
ITC said, “Based on the record of the investigation, it was determined that SK made an excuse that document deletion and document deletion was a regular practice, and attempted to conceal document deletion with flagrant bad faith,” said “OUII (Unfair income under ITC). The Bureau of Investigation) stated that there exist grounds beyond probability that the destroyed evidence was related to the (trade secret) infringement that SK wanted to cover up. I agree and admit to this analysis of OUII.”
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It was also revealed why SK’s ban on battery production and import in the United States was set to 10 years. ITC believes that it would have taken SK to develop its own products for 10 years without LG’s 22 trade secrets. ITC said, “LG has sufficiently proved that SK infringed on trade secrets and was able to head start more than 10 years ahead of other competitors.” “I agree with LG’s claim that it would not have been possible to develop the information on the trade secret.”
ITC believes that Ford and Volkswagen, which are supplied with batteries from SK, are also partially responsible. ITC said, “Not only are there wrong SK, but there are also those who choose to continue to establish future business relationships despite the infringement of SK’s trade secrets.”