SK Nexilis, an investment company in SKC's copper foil business for secondary batteries, will face a formal hearing in a U.S. court over its trade secret misappropriation claims against Solus Advanced Materials.
SK Nexilis said on the 14th that, in its ongoing patent infringement lawsuit against Solus Advanced Materials, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas decided to hold a formal hearing on the trade secret misappropriation claims.
The decision to hold a hearing follows an amended complaint filed last month by SK Nexilis adding allegations of violations of the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act against Solus Advanced Materials and its affiliates. The complaint alleges that Solus Advanced Materials wrongfully acquired and used trade secrets such as additive recipes, electrolyte operating conditions, and drum management methods, which are core to the copper foil manufacturing process.
The court allowed the amended complaint and decided to address patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation in the same case. However, considering that the patent infringement case is already well underway, the court plans to proceed by separating the two issues procedurally.
SK Nexilis has also filed a lawsuit in Europe seeking to enjoin patent infringement by an affiliate of Solus Advanced Materials. In Korea, Solus Advanced Materials brought eight patent infringement suits against SK Nexilis. Of these, four have been found invalid.
An SK Nexilis official said, "To ensure healthy growth and development of the battery industry, practices that steal others' rights must be stopped. This lawsuit is also meaningful for maintaining technological superiority in competition with Chinese companies."