LG Chem Files U.S. Lawsuits Against Rival SK Innovation

South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd. and its U.S. manufacturing subsidiary have filed a pair of lawsuits claiming that rival battery maker SK Innovation Ltd. stole trade secrets related to LG’s lithium-ion battery technology.

The suits, which were filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the District Court of Delaware, clam that former LG workers hired by SKI provided the latter with stolen technical information. LG says it already has won similar cases against SKI in Korea, where the Supreme Court ruled in its favor.

SKI hired 77 people from LG’s lithium-ion battery division—including dozens of advanced research engineers—over the last three years, according to the lawsuits. LG claims a “significant number” of these workers provided proprietary information to SKI to help it develop “pouch-type” batteries similar to LG’s products.

Some of the employees are accused of downloading as many as 1,900 technical documents prior to leaving LG Chem. One engineer allegedly included information about LG’s electrode manufacturing process on a resume sent to SKI.

LG claims that SKI has increased its lithium-ion contracts fourteenfold since it began hiring the 77 workers. In addition to “significant” monetary awards, LG is seeking to prevent SKI from importing batteries using the disputed technology into the U.S.