SK Innovation Responds to Patent Infringement Lawsuit by LG Chem

SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 31, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SK Innovation filed a lawsuit against LG Chem with the Seoul Central District Court in South Korea on charges of breaking the Agreement on October 22, 2019.  

SK Innovation has now opened the entire Agreement to the public through a press release and website in Korea on October 28, 2019  to clarify the Patent Infringement Lawsuit.

LG Chem and SK Innovation agreed on below terms to put an end to all the litigations and legal conflicts related to the Patent No. 775310 on ceramic coating separator on October 29, 2014. The litigations and legal conflicts first broke out in 2011 and ended in 2014 for the sake of both parties' long term growth and development. Following are the details of the Agreement:

1. LG and SK work together on cooperative creative synergy for both parties

2. Upon the agreement, SK drops the patent invalidation cases of Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board (IPT) 2011DANG3206, a nullity appeal on the patent correction ruling IPT 2013DANG2735, Patent Court trial revocation litigation 2014HEO4968, and LG drops Patent Court trial revocation litigation 2013HEO9614. Both parties agree on dropping above litigations and trial revocation litigations.

3. LG and SK do not charge all the legal costs incurred in regards to the injunction in patent infringement, tort trials and trial revocation litigations.

4. LG and SK do not take the other party either directly or via affiliates both in and out of the country on injunction in patent infringements and tort trials.

5. This Agreement is valid for the next 10 years after the date signed.

The Agreement was signed by then President of LG Chem (current LG vice-Chair) KWON Young-Soo, who led the legal actions.

According to Article 4 of the Agreement, LG and SK agreed "not to take the other party either directly or via affiliates both in and out of the country on injunction in patent infringements and tort trials."

In particular, Article 5 states that the agreement is valid for the next 10 years after the date signed.

However, on September 3, 2019, LG Chem filed a complaint with the U.S. ITC and the federal court in Delaware against SK Innovation for the infringement of the Patent No. 775310.

SK Innovation considers LG Chem's action this September as a disregard of the agreement signed in 2014, which states there will be no lawsuit on the Patent No. 775310 both in and out of the country for the next 10 years and has, hence, brought a case against SK Innovation.

Su-Kil Lim, executive vice president of SK Innovation's PR office stated: "Although it has been argued the litigation filed at ITC is not about the same patent as the one we have agreed not to file suit over, SK Innovation contends that the priority number, patent title, inventor, explanations and drawings are identical to the above mentioned patent." 

SOURCE SK Innovation