Trade secret lawsuit between Samsung SDI suppliers to be prolonged 

The lawsuit between TSI and Jeil Machine is expected to be prolonged after the latter appealed against a verdict in the district court, TheElec recently learned.

The pair supply battery production equipment to Samsung SDI.

In its appeal filings, Jeil said TSI must halt use and production of mixing equipment and scrap its blueprint going forward. The former is claiming that the blueprint for the equipment includes its trade secrets and copyrights.

TSI won the first round between the pair when the Seoul Central District Court on December 22 sided with the company on their lawsuit over trade secret infringement. Jeil had filed the lawsuit against TSI.

But the court said it was difficult to claim that the blueprint could be considered a copyrighted material.

Samsung SDI had mostly excluded TSI in its supply chain for mixing equipment since the lawsuit started. It did continue to use the company’s material storage and transfer equipment.

TSI has been focusing on securing new customers, such as Saft, subsidiary of France’s Total, and Vietnam’s Vingroup. It is also aiming to expand dealings with LG Energy Solution.

Suppliers of Samsung SDI and SK Innovation in general were attempting supply more to LG Energy Solution as it was most active in expanding its facilities.

TSI, founded in 2006, last year on July 22 listed on KOSDAQ. It was previously listed on KONEX. In 2020, the company recorded 45.7 billion won in sales and 800 million won in operating loss. The sales was a drop of 25% from 2019.