“Already infringed on 580 patents”… LG Ensol pulls out its sword for technology theft

LG Energy Solutions has taken a stab at the ‘patent free riding’ that is rampant in the industry. LG Energy Solutions declared on the 24th, “We will respond strongly to companies that illegally use patents through lawsuits and warnings.”

The reason LG Energy Solutions is taking a hard line against patent free riding is because there is a series of indiscriminate infringements of intellectual property rights (IP) by battery latecomers. Company A, a global battery company, supplies electric vehicle batteries to Company B, which sells electric vehicles throughout Europe. As a result of the analysis, it was found that LG Energy Solution’s core materials and processes, such as coating separators and cathode materials, infringed on more than 30 patents. When analyzing the batteries of Company C, which supplies batteries to electronic device manufacturers, it was found that they infringed on more than 50 patents of LG Energy Solutions.

In the meantime, LG Energy Solution has filed lawsuits against competitors for patent infringement or theft of trade secrets at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and German courts. However, as intellectual property rights violations continue and even major automakers do not consider compliance with patent rights when selecting battery suppliers, market distortions are becoming more severe, so they have decided to take stronger responses.

As the global battery market has grown rapidly over the past decade, cases of indiscriminate technology theft have also increased rapidly. Unlike first movers, including LG Energy Solutions, latecomers who have difficulty securing patents are using patents without permission and expanding their market entry into Europe, China, India, and Southeast Asia.

Among the patents held by LG Energy Solutions, the number of ‘strategic patents’ that competitors infringe or are expected to infringe amounts to about 1,000. An official from LG Energy Solutions said, “The number of patents confirmed to have been actually infringed by competitors reaches 580.”

LG Energy Solutions plans to streamline its licensing business and management by gradually licensing major patents through a global patent pool, focusing on patents currently infringing on the market. If indiscriminate technological infringement continues without a legitimate license agreement, we plan to take strong action, such as filing a lawsuit to prohibit patent infringement. An official from LG Energy Solutions said, “We plan to systematically manage and supervise global intellectual property rights by actively securing local experts in major markets such as the U.S., Europe, and China to strengthen our global litigation capabilities and expanding overseas IP offices that manage intellectual property rights. “He explained. LG Energy Solution CEO Kim Dong-myeong said, “Respect for intellectual property rights is an essential element for fair competition in the global market.” He added, “For the survival of the company and the development of the industry, we will protect intellectual property rights and respond strictly to indiscriminate patent infringement.” .