① South Korea's Ministry of Industry, Trade and Resources announced yesterday that at the request of LG Chemical, it will investigate three Chinese manufacturers of nickel-cobalt-manganese 811 cathode materials for suspected patent infringement.

② Caixin News Agency reporters learned from Bertrand, Dangsheng Technology, Huayou Cobalt and Rongbai Technology Securities Department that none of the above-mentioned enterprises paid attention to or received relevant notices.

③ The reporter noted that it is not the first time that a lawsuit against intellectual property rights of cathode material companies at home and abroad has occurred.

lithium enterprises to sea again encounter "storm". South Korea's Ministry of Trade and Industry announced yesterday that it would investigate three Chinese manufacturers of nickel-cobalt-manganese 811 cathode materials for patent infringement at the request of LG Chem. Caixin News Agency reporters from Beitri (835185.BJ), Dangsheng Technology (300073.SZ), Huayou Cobalt (603799.SH) and Rongbai Technology (688005.SH) Securities Department learned that the above-mentioned enterprises have not received the relevant notice.

the reporter of the financial association news agency noted that it is not the first time that the lawsuit over intellectual property rights of cathode material enterprises at home and abroad has occurred. before that, overseas enterprises yumicol have successively sued rong bai technology and dangsheng technology. at present, yumicol has lost the lawsuit. Miao Qi, a senior partner of Yingke Law Firm, who has many years of experience in overseas commercial and intellectual property arbitration, told Caixin that if sufficient evidence is found after investigation, the enterprise may face measures such as fines or access restrictions from the agency.

Survey Involves 3 High Nickel Positive Enterprises in China

According to a notice issued on the official website of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea on January 11, in response to an application filed by LG Chem (LG Chemical Ltd.), South Korea will investigate suspected patent infringement by a Chinese manufacturer of nickel-cobalt-manganese 811 cathode materials, involving three Chinese manufacturers and a South Korean importer.

(photo source: Korean Ministry of Trade and Industry official website notice)

according to the above notice, LG chemistry applied for the product of the investigation object is "nickel cobalt manganese 811 cathode material", the application reason is, "1-4 by the applicant enterprise imported from China suspected of infringing the applicant's intellectual property rights of the investigation object product". The notice did not disclose the names of specific Chinese companies.

public information shows that the mainstream enterprises of high nickel ternary cathode materials in a shares include: rongbai technology, beitri, huayou cobalt industry, dangsheng technology, zhenhua new materials (688707.SH), xiamen tungsten new energy (688778.SH), long-term lithium science (688779.SH), etc.

regarding the above-mentioned official notice from south Korea, beiteri's secretary of the board, Zhang Xiaofeng, told the reporter of the financial association, "I am not very clear about LG's matter and have not received any news in this regard." Regarding the current business volume in South Korea, Zhang Xiaofeng said that the company's products account for a large proportion of global exports.

the reporter of the financial union learned from dangsheng technology and huayou cobalt securities department that both enterprises belong to LG suppliers and have not received relevant information so far. Rongbai Technology Securities Department told Caixin News Agency that it would understand the relevant matters, but did not respond to the interview letter as of press time. Long-term lithium said that there are no products directly exported to South Korea for the time being. As of press time, the reporter failed to dial the Zhenhua New Material Securities Department public telephone.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) is a functional department of the South Korean government responsible for the country's trade, industrial and energy policies. Miao Qi, a senior partner of Yingke Law Firm and a member of the expert committee of the Power Battery Application Branch, told the Caixin News Agency, "The department is similar to some of the functions of China's Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and General Administration of Market Supervision and Administration, and is responsible for the formulation of industrial policies, trade and investment, and fair competition in the market. The intellectual property investigation mentioned today is an important work for this department."

Regarding the impact of the above three companies that are applied for investigation, Miao Qi said that if the evidence is found to be sufficient after the investigation, the company may face measures such as fines or access restrictions from the agency.

It is reported that LG Chemical belongs to LG Group and is the parent company of LG New Energy. According to the South Korean market research organization SNE Research global power battery installed capacity data, from January to November 2023, LG's total installed capacity of new energy ranked third in the world, while the rest of the South Korean battery companies on the list include SK On and Samsung SDI, ranking fifth and seventh respectively.

Intellectual property disputes between domestic and overseas lithium battery enterprises intensify

Miao Qi said that Chinese companies face lawsuits or investigations such as intellectual property infringement when they go out to sea. "This includes games between countries, and there are also reasons why Chinese companies ignore local laws and intellectual property due diligence when they go out to sea. In fact, the battery industry is also a relatively young industry in our country. It is not experienced in going out to sea, and it has not realized the huge impact of laws and regulations on itself when pursuing the market."

Previously, Jiangsu Dangsheng Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiangsu Dangsheng") and Rongbai Technology, subsidiaries of Dangsheng Technology, were both sued by overseas companies Umicore (UMICORE NV/SA).

in August 2022, yumicol company sued Jiangsu dangsheng according to its invention patents no ZL 201110242474.3 and no ZL 201280023315.7, demanding that it stop manufacturing, selling and promising to sell the infringed products, and pay compensation and reasonable expenses, with the total amount involved being 0.11 billion yuan.

The lawsuit ended in September 2023 with Dangsheng Technology's subsidiary winning the first trial. In addition, in November 2023, Dangsheng Technology received a decision by the Review and Invalidation Department of the Patent Office of the State Intellectual Property Office to invalidate all the patent rights of the invention in question owned by Umicore.

Rongbai Technology also received the "Civil Judgment" issued by the Supreme People's Court on December 6, 2023, which ordered to maintain the trial result of the court of first instance and reject Yumicol's appeal. So far, the company's S6503 products, S85E products in the patent infringement litigation related to Umicore, Rongbai Technology have won the case.

Dangsheng Technology Securities Department also told the Caixin News Agency reporter that the new energy industry will definitely be subject to some intellectual property issues (troubled) when it goes to sea. "Umicore has had intellectual property-related lawsuits against our company, including other companies, before, and we won the case in the first instance."