LG Innotek wins patent suit against Nidec

By Yoon Sung-won

LG Innotek has won a patent lawsuit against a Japanese motor manufacturer in China, the company said Thursday.

The material and component production affiliate of LG said it has won in the first trial of its patent infringement suit regarding the structure of precision motors for optical disk drives (ODD) it filed against Nidec at the intellectual property rights court in Beijing.

“With the favorable decision, our high-precision motor technology and patent competitiveness have been recognized,” LG Innotek’s patent division head Kim Jin-hyun said in a statement. “We will actively protect our intellectual property rights and patented technology that we have secured through creative minds and ceaseless challenges from being infringed upon.”

LG Innotek said the patent infringed upon by Nidec is about a technology that protects a precision motor from being penetrated by external substances.

The decision of the first trial will be the final judgement unless Nidec makes an appeal within 30 days. If it becomes final, Nidec should compensate LG Innotek for losses it has suffered due to the patent infringement. In addition, the Japanese company will no longer be able to produce and sell related products.

Nidec is the world’s leading motor producer that provides products for computers, electronic devices, automobiles and manufacturing equipment. The Japanese company posted 1.18 trillion yen ($11.6 billion) in sales last year.

The two companies have competed in the precision spindle motor market for ODDs. Spindle motors have been used to rotate disks inside optical drives. Earlier in 2013, Nidec filed a patent infringement suit against LG Innotek regarding spindle motor technology. The case is still in a court in Beijing.

Though the race between the two companies ended when LG Innotek withdrew from the ODD motor business last year, they still are engaged in a patent war because technologies used for precision motors can also be used for new growth fields such as automobiles, LG Innotek said.

The company is aggressively pushing for its automotive component business to tap into the technological expertise it has accumulated from the IT component business. It has mass-produced brake and steering motors since 2007 and expanded to transmissions in 2014.