LG plans battery patent pool to tackle infringement ‘surge’
Seoul-headquartered company’s Energy division to establish global licensing model in response to widespread infringement | Plans include enhancing litigation capabilities to sue manufacturers that do not comply.
LG Energy Solution plans to establish a battery patent licensing market by creating a global patent pool to tackle a surge in “free riders” that are infringing its IP, with the promise of more aggressive action if its measures are not adopted.
Announcing the new business model yesterday (April 24), the company said it believed its competitors were infringing around 580 patents out of 1,000 in its portfolio identified as being “highly strategic” to the battery industry.
Rapid growth in the global battery industry, driven by the electric vehicle (EV) market, had intensified competition and led to a sharp rise in infringement, LG Energy said.
The Seoul-headquartered manufacturer—which supplies batteries to 13 of the top 20 automotive brands—emphasised that it planned strong countermeasures against what it said were “patent free riders” who had entered the market late and blatantly infringed its IP.
This could include issuing warning notices and filing patent infringement suits, LG Energy Solution said, also explaining that it planned to establish a legitimate battery patent licensing market similar to models in the semiconductor and IT industries.
LG Energy would form a global patent pool initially using patents currently believed to be infringed by commercialised products, and then licence out key patent portfolios in phases.
Infringing batteries in laptops, phones and electric cars
The battery manufacturer said that competitors were using its patented technology across a range of products, including consumer electronics, energy storage systems (ESS) and EVs.
This included supplying automakers that sell EVs in Europe, and world-renowned electronics companies that sold laptops and phones across Europe and China.
Major multinational manufacturers of end-products containing infringing batteries were “overlooking” their suppliers’ non-compliance with patent rights, LG Energy Solution said.
The company has filed more than 58,000 patent applications worldwide, and secured more than 30,000 issued patents.
It said it held patents that covered next-generation battery technologies, including battery management systems (BMS) that would be essential to the growth of the EV market in the future.
Because of these patents and other “highly strategic” ones, it would be “nonsensical” for latecomers to ignore the risk of patent infringement and develop batteries without licensing LG Energy Solution’s IP rights, the firm said.
Han Sun Lee, head of the IP centre at LG Energy Solution, commented: “To safeguard our technological leadership and promote collective growth in the industry, we will commit ourselves to establishing a fair patent licensing system and take strict measures against unlawful infringements.”
The company said it would enhance its global litigation capabilities by securing experts in major markets and investing in its regional IP offices in preparation for IP prosecution and enforcement measures.
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