NEC Power, a company specializing in operation solutions for waste-to-energy incineration facilities, said on the 10th that it filed a complaint with the Ministry of Intellectual Property accusing SK ecoplant of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act.
NEC Power said SK ecoplant received its core technical ideas during the proof of concept (PoC) and contract talks for developing an "eco-friendly incinerator operation optimization solution," then halted the contract and used the ideas to develop its own solution and file patents.
From February to May 2021, the two companies held talks to apply NEC Power's technology at an SK ecoplant establishment. During this process, at SK ecoplant's request, NEC Power took part in the proof of concept by conducting on-site technical diagnostics, selecting sensor locations, reviewing the data map, and designing the core data collection structure.
However, on May 26 of the same year, SK ecoplant notified that it would not conclude a contract, citing NEC Power's temporary deferred payment of taxes.
NEC Power later said SK ecoplant used its technical ideas. The technologies NEC Power raised issue with include: ▲ selecting the temperature sensor location at the top of the drying section for proactive detection of overcombustion ▲ selecting key variables (TAG) for incinerator performance analysis and refining the database in 1-minute intervals ▲ calculating the real-time estimated calorific value of combustion waste and building a training database.
About six weeks after rejecting the contract, in July 2021, SK ecoplant announced it had independently developed an "eco-friendly incinerator AI solution." NEC Power also said that related patents registered and filed by SK ecoplant reflect technical concepts it provided during the talks.
A NEC Power official said, "This is a case where a large company used technical ideas provided by a small company in hopes of collaboration to create its own results and even monopolize patents," adding, "Through the complaint, we will determine whether laws were broken and continue legal action to protect intellectual property rights and the value of the technology."