An application by SK Nexilis asking a U.S. court to additionally hear trade secret misappropriation in connection with its patent infringement lawsuit against Solus Advanced Materials in the United States was not accepted.
Solus Advanced Materials said on the 10th that a U.S. court dismissed SK Nexilis' request to expand the patent infringement lawsuit. SK Nexilis last month asked the court in the patent infringement case to consolidate and hear liability for Solus Advanced Materials' alleged trade secret misappropriation.
Solus Advanced Materials immediately filed an opposition to SK Nexilis' request, arguing that it lacked clear legal grounds and validity. According to Solus Advanced Materials, the additive recipes and electrolyte operating conditions for copper foil manufacturing that SK Nexilis claims are already technologies in generic use in the market and do not constitute trade secret misappropriation.
With this court decision, the ongoing patent infringement lawsuit will address only the merits: Solus Advanced Materials' noninfringement claim and whether SK Nexilis' patent is invalid. The U.S. court determined that SK Nexilis' additional trade secret misappropriation allegations are a new matter distinct from the patent infringement suit and decided to proceed separately.
A Solus Advanced Materials official said, "There is no trade secret misappropriation as the other party claims," and added, "This is merely an attempt to expand the lawsuit with an issue unrelated to the patent infringement case." The official continued, "We will clearly prove that there has been no violation whatsoever."