Celgard Files Amended Complaint adding Farasis, Sun Town and Global Venture to Lawsuit Against Senior for Patent Infringement and Trade Secret Misappropriation

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Celgard, LLC (Celgard), a subsidiary of Polypore International, LP (Polypore), filed a First Amended Complaint against Defendants Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co. Ltd. (US) and Research Institute (Senior-California), Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co. Ltd. (Senior-China) (collectively, Senior), Sun Town Technology, Inc. (Sun Town), Farasis Energy USA, Inc., Farasis Energy, Inc., Farasis Energy (Gan Zhou), Inc., and Farasis Energy (Gan Zhou) Co., Ltd. (collectively, Farasis), Global Venture Development, LLC, and Global Venture Development, Inc. (collectively, Global Venture) (collectively, Defendants), adding the additional defendants Farasis, Sun Town and Global Venture to the active case against Senior in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The First Amended Complaint alleges Defendants infringe Celgard's United States Reissued Patent RE47,520 (the '520 patent), formerly United States Patent 6,432,586 (the '586 patent), on ceramic coated separators, and Celgard's United States Patent No. 6,692,867 (the '867 patent), on polypropylene separators, and unlawfully misappropriated and are misusing Celgard's trade secrets and confidential information, as well as several other violations of the law and breaches.

Earlier, Celgard filed a motion for a preliminary injunction asking the Court to quickly grant such relief prohibiting the Defendants (Senior-California, Senior-China) from: (1) use of Celgard's trade secrets and/or confidential information, (2) infringement of the '520 patent, and of the '867 patent, (3) violations of the California Business and Professions Code, (4) inducement of a breach of contract, (5) intentionally interfering with prospective economic relations, and (6) making, using, offering to sell, or selling in the United States (U.S.), or from importing into the U.S., products that infringe the '520 and '867 patents and/or that include Celgard's trade secrets or confidential information. The Court has scheduled a preliminary injunction hearing January 27, 2020. With the First Amended Complaint, which adds additional defendants and requests preliminary and permanent injunctions and other relief, if the Court grants the requested preliminary injunction requested by Celgard, the Defendants will be preliminarily enjoined from, at least and importantly, disclosing or using Celgard's trade secrets and/or confidential information, making, testing, using, promoting, offering to sell, marketing, commercializing, or selling separators or products of any kind that utilize, embody, or were developed, in whole or in part, with the benefit or use of any of Celgard's trade secrets and/or confidential information, and from both direct and indirect infringement of Celgard's patents, including being enjoined from importing Senior's infringing separators and products containing such infringing separators into the U.S., and from making, using, selling, or offering for sale Senior's infringing separators and products containing such infringing separators in the U.S., and including being enjoined from inducing or encouraging third parties (their customers) to infringe and violate the Court's preliminary injunction order (the enjoined behavior).

In September, Celgard filed suit against Senior who sells separators globally that they make in Shenzhen, China. Celgard's Complaint alleges Senior has infringed Celgard's U.S. '520 and '867 patents on ceramic coated and polypropylene separators, and has unlawfully misappropriated and misused Celgard's trade secrets and confidential information, among other violations and seeks compensation for damages. See Release.

In August, Celgard successfully settled a patent infringement lawsuit against Targray International (Targray) for infringing Celgard's '520 and '867 patents. See Release.

In June, Celgard also successfully settled two suits against MTI Corporation (MTI) for selling separators that infringe Celgard's '586 patent and for selling counterfeit separators with the Celgard® registered trademark. See Release.

The successful outcome of the Targray and MTI cases further solidifies the integrity of Celgard's intellectual property (IP) regarding coated and uncoated separators for lithium-ion batteries. Celgard will continue to prevent the unfair exploitation of its technology and IP to safeguard its assets and customers.

About Celgard and Polypore
Celgard specializes in coated and uncoated dry-process microporous membranes used as separators that are a major component of lithium-ion batteries. Celgard's battery separator technology is important to the performance of lithium-ion batteries for electric drive vehicles, energy storage systems and other applications.

Celgard, LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Polypore International, LP, an Asahi Kasei Company. Polypore is a global company with facilities in nine countries specializing in microporous membranes used in electric and nonelectric vehicles, energy storage systems and specialty applications. Visit www.celgard.com and www.polypore.com.

SOURCE Polypore International, LP