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| An email sent from SK Innovation to its employees on April 30 shows that the company ordered its employees to remove documents related with LG Chem. / Courtesy of LG Chem |
By Baek Byung-yeul
LG Chem is asking the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) to make a default judgment or an early ruling against SK Innovation, claiming SK has concealed evidence of infringing on its battery-making patents, the battery maker said Thursday.
The LG Group affiliate said it found over 34,000 of files and emails recently that show SK Innovation tried to tamper with the evidence that it stole its battery-making trade secrets.
"We requested the USITC to make a default judgment as we found that SK Innovation destroyed evidence that it infringed and stole trade secrets of LG and didn't follow the USITC's digital forensics orders," the company said.
The local battery makers have been in a legal feud over batteries for electric vehicles (EVs).
In April, LG Chem filed a pair of lawsuits with the USITC and a U.S. court against SK Innovation for allegedly stealing confidential business information through employee poaching. It also requested the two agencies suspend imports of SK EV batteries.
"On April 29, when LG Chem filed a lawsuit with the USITC against SK Innovation, the company sent emails to its employees to delete any documents related with its competitor, which is LG Chem. SK also ordered employees of SK Battery America, a U.S. branch of SK Innovation, to thoroughly take care of their documents on their PCs," LG Chem said.
"It turned out that SK Innovation has shared trade secrets of ours with its employees. Even before we filed a lawsuit, SK Innovation sent emails to its employees to delete Microsoft Excel files that contain LG's patented technologies."
If the USITC accepts LG Chem's request to make a default judgment against SK Innovation, it will rule against SK without going through an initial determination phase. Also, if the USITC issues its final determination in support of LG Chem, SK Innovation will be prohibited from supplying its battery cells in the U.S.
In response, SK Innovation said it "is faithfully responding to the lawsuit unlike its competitor that is trying to appeal to public sentiment to earn a ruling in its favor."
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