US delays ruling on LG-SK dispute

Logos for LG and SK

By Kim Yoo-chul

As widely-expected, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) again delayed a decision in an industrial espionage case involving the world's top battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution and rival SK Innovation (SKI), this time to Feb. 10 next year.

The USITC said the decision to delay its ruling was made through a vote of its members, without giving any details.

LG Energy Solution, a key battery supplier for Tesla, General Motors (GM) and other leading car manufacturers, filed a complaint against SKI in a U.S. court last year, alleging the theft of some of its battery patents, something SKI denied.

It sought to ban SKI from manufacturing battery cells and packs at its Georgia plant and importing the parts necessary to make them.

The USITC decision was initially scheduled for early October, however, this was delayed until December. Because a ruling against SKI will lead to an import and production ban of its batteries, clients including Volkswagen and Ford Motors, are said to have indirectly approached government officials in Korea, to possibly mediate the dispute for an early settlement. This move was not welcomed by LG Energy Solution which insists the issue is about intellectual property rights.

While it remains “very confident” that the USITC will rule against SKI and issue remedial actions, the latest delay will help SKI buy “more time” to explore possible steps for a settlement. Legal representatives of the two companies are said to be engaged in “low-key discussions.”

Some analysts say because a final ruling by the USITC will have an impact on the U.S. economy including job issues and may hurt the “public interest,” the delays mean LG and SK hold the key to closing the matter.

In a Samsung Electronics-Apple patent case, the case was closed with no support from the U.S. government. Apple said its design patents were stolen by Samsung, something the Korean firm denied. At the time, Samsung got the backing of a wide range of other tech companies such as Facebook, Dell and Google as a complete win for Apple could have led lead to a new wave of monopolistic “bargaining power.”

“Usually, if a certain company emerges with some sort of lopsided victory, the USITC is taking into consideration the possible impact of such a victory on the general public because this is one of the core rationales in making any decision in a fight between foreign companies and even domestic firms,” a patent expert said.