Solus Advanced Materials announced on the 1st that it had submitted a rebuttal to the claims made by SK Nexilis, which filed a patent infringement lawsuit in a U.S. court. They argued that there is a lack of clear legal basis and validity, and that no trade secrets were violated.
Solus Advanced Materials requested the court to deny the second amendment request submitted by SK in the ongoing patent infringement lawsuit in the U.S. Eastern District Court of Texas. There has yet to be a decision from the court regarding acceptance.
Earlier, SK Nexilis requested an amendment to add liability for violations of the U.S. Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) and the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (TUTSA) in relation to the ongoing patent infringement lawsuit in the Eastern District Court of Texas.
Key points included evidence that Solus Advanced Materials had unlawfully acquired and used trade secrets regarding ▲ additive recipes ▲ electrolyte operating conditions ▲ drum management methods, which are critical to the copper foil manufacturing process.
Solus Advanced Materials argued that this is a separate matter from the patent infringement lawsuit, claiming a lack of legal basis and validity. They firmly rebutted that there has been no violation of SK Nexilis's trade secrets. They stated that the processes for manufacturing copper foil, including additive recipes, have been in common use well before SK entered the market.
Most of the technologies that SK Nexilis has raised concerns about were independently developed and used by Solus Advanced Materials' European subsidiary, Circuit Foil Luxembourg (CFL), established in the 1960s, and patents were obtained in the 1990s.
Both companies are also engaging in patent litigation in Korea and Europe. Of the eight patent infringement lawsuits currently underway in Korea, four were ruled invalid on the 28th of last month, and the remaining four are set to commence proceedings. Recently, SK Nexilis filed two patent infringement prohibition lawsuits against copper foil products sold by a subsidiary of Solus Advanced Materials at the European Unified Patent Court (UPC).
A representative from Solus Advanced Materials said, "The opposing party's patents are merely parameters that have existed in copper foil products manufactured by our subsidiary and the industry for decades, hence they are invalid," and added, "We will respond to the lawsuit with strong evidence from various prior documents and existing products that we have secured."