Lithium-ion battery producer LG Energy Solution has won an intellectual property case against SK Innovation (SKI) in a US trade court, Kallanish reports. 

The fallout from the US International Trade Commission (ITC) decision means that SKI’s batteries that allegedly were created with LG’s technology are banned from the country. 

“SKI’s total disregard of our warnings and intellectual property rights gave us no choice but to file this case and we are grateful to the International Trade Commission for protecting our innovations and significant economic investments in the United States,” says LG Energy ceo Jong Hyun Kim. “As a global leader and technology innovator, we will further strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights going forward.”

LG Energy alleges that SKI committed “trade secret theft by hiring dozens of engineers, manufacturing, and critical business services staff” in April 2019. 

The exclusion of SKI’s batteries from the US market will last 10 years, though exclusions were granted for SKI’s four-year agreement with Ford for its electric F-150 line and for the company’s two-year agreement with Volkswagen for its MEB line. 

“Using LG Energy Solution’s stolen technology, SKI improperly secured lucrative contracts with US auto manufacturers, whose orders totaled in the billions, and negotiated historic subsidies and incentives from state and local governments to build a new manufacturing facility in Georgia,” LG Energy says in a statement. “SKI’s new Georgia plant would have relied on LG Energy Solution’s stolen trade secrets, and the ITC’s ruling has definitively prohibited use of LG Energy Solution’s misappropriated technology.”

SKI denies any wrong-doing in the hiring of former LG Energy employees. Though it doesn’t address the most recent ITC decision, a section of the company’s website dedicated to the battery lawsuit previously expressed interest in a settlement and provides a path forward for the company. 

“SKI has won large size battery orders from companies such as Ford and Daimler based on its differentiated technology, and is planning on continuing to invest into expanding production facilities,” the company says, noting involvement in battery-adjacent industries like battery-as-a-service, aviation, watercraft, and energy storage solutions.