Solus Advanced Materials said Monday that it won a patent infringement lawsuit against SK Nexilis over copper foil for secondary batteries in Europe.
The Mannheim Regional Division of the Unified Patent Court ruled on Friday (local time) that Solus Advanced Materials' products do not infringe on the patents at issue, dismissing the plaintiff's claims in the battery foil patent infringement lawsuit filed by SK Nexilis. This lawsuit was a battery foil patent infringement action brought by SK Nexilis last year against Volta Energy Solutions, Solus Advanced Materials' European subsidiary.
The patent in dispute (EP 3 316 363) is a European patent related to one of the five patents targeted in a patent lawsuit filed by SK Nexilis in the United States in 2023. The core issue was the measurement standard and interpretation method for the surface roughness indicator 'Rpc (number of surface peaks per unit length)' specified in SK Nexilis' patent claims. The patent stipulates that the Rpc value must be within the range of 10 to 100, based on the number of valid peaks actually present within a section of a 4 mm unit sampling length.
SK Nexilis argued that the Rpc value should be calculated by converting the number of peaks measured over a 4 mm interval to a 1 cm standard, citing the calculation methods of certain measurement equipment and industry practices. In response, the court determined that it could not accept SK Nexilis' conversion method, as it deviated from the literal meaning of the patent claims and the specified measurement standards.
The court found that the Rpc value of Solus Advanced Materials' products falls below 10, which is the minimum standard required by the patent claims. The court dismissed SK Nexilis' patent infringement claim, ruling that Solus Advanced Materials' products do not fall within the technical scope of the patent claims and therefore no infringement exists. The court ordered SK Nexilis to bear litigation costs of 1.1 million euros (approximately 1.65 billion won).
A representative from Solus Advanced Materials stated, "We respect the court's decision and positively evaluate the non-infringement ruling in this European lawsuit." They added, "Going forward, we will continue stable business activities in the European market while diligently responding to ongoing related lawsuits."
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