Review of LG vs. SKI Lawsuit

As early as April 30, 2019, LG and its US subsidiary filed a lawsuit against SKI with the International Trade Commission (ITC) for allegedly using former employees to steal its trade secrets.

According to the lawsuit submitted by LG to the ITC, SKI has hired 76 of the power battery industry’s core R&D talents over the past two years and requested them to submit core engineering and technical documents during the conversion process, while SKI has violated commercial rules by repeatedly demanding the core technical documents of the employees after they have joined SKI.

Therefore, LG and SKI have been in litigation for “stealing intellectual property rights” for two years.

ITC did not directly state the reason for the delayed verdict, but this may be related to SKI’s plan to invest in a battery factory in the United States. It is reported that SKI will invest $5 billion in the United States to build a large battery factory that will provide 6,000 jobs after completion.

Interestingly, the planned location of the battery factory is in Georgia, the main area of the Republican Party to which Trump belongs. According to SKI’s plan, the first and second-phase factories will invest $2.5 billion, and an additional $2.5 billion will be used for the construction of the third and fourth-phase factories.

If SKI’s lawsuit with LG fails, it will mean that these investments will also be lost. This should be one of the reasons why the ITC postponed the judgment.

What’s more interesting is that LG and General Motors will also build a battery factory in Ohio, and LG said it might add more investment in the future.

It seems that this lawsuit about intellectual property is evolving into an investment lawsuit, and some Korean media indicate that the ITC is promoting dialogue between the two companies, and the two companies are also willing to talk to resolve it.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.