SK, LG battery dispute to continue after the USITC upheld findings SK stole trade secrets

SK Innovations and LG Energy have been involved in legal disputes for quite a while now and the case is being heard in the U.S. The International Trade Commission is handling the proceeding since it is about alleged stolen trade secrets.

The agency already released its initial findings and stated that SK Innovations indeed infringed LG Energy Solutions (LGES) batteries for electric vehicles. Reuters previously reported that SKI was given a 10-year ban on lithium-ion battery import to the U.S. This means LG won in the case and SKI has been proven to have infringed the former’s EV battery design.

USITC affirms the ruling on SKI’s violations

The Korea Herald reported that the USITC handed down its final ruling and upheld its first decision that SKI stole LGES’ trade secrets, at least 22 of them. The agency publicly declared that SK misappropriated LG’s battery technology and used them to produce its own electric vehicle batteries.

The trade commission confirmed SKI’s trade secret theft from LG and said to have planned the destroyed evidence which was planned and the USITC called the actions “extraordinary.” In any case, this is a second big blow to SK since it was reiterated that it sold and imported EV batteries to the U.S. that were made using LGES’ industrial secrets.

What’s more, the commission stated in its 96-page document that "it is clear that SKI, without the stolen LG Chem Trade Secrets, would not have been able to develop the information in the stolen trade secrets in anything less than ten years."

LG, SK dispute is not over yet

While the decision has already been finalized and made public, SKI said it will still appeal and

Perhaps, ask Joe Biden to reverse the decision on public policy grounds. The company stated that thousands of jobs in its U.S. plant and office will lose their jobs and it will also crush the plans to build a major production factory in Georgia.

While the verdict is already out, it appears that there is still no end to SK and LG’s bitter battery war. SK revealed its intention to continue its fight and appeal while LG left hot words against its rival and with this scenario, the dispute will obviously pick up rather than conclude.

"LG Energy Solution's multi-billion dollar investment in its lithium-ion battery business was a down payment on a carbon-free future and an investment we believed was safe from intellectual property thieves," The Korea Times quoted LGES Michigan’s tech center president Denise Gray, as saying after the final decision was released. "SK Innovation stole a technology that required tens of thousands of hours of careful and costly engineering. The release of the ITC decision puts to rest any questions of whether SK Innovation did anything wrong ― they did, repeatedly, and now they must be held accountable."