The curtain of the patent war in the Ningde era is about to open.
Text/Shanshan Xu
Recently, the stock price fluctuations of the Cataline Era have attracted attention from all walks of life. Yesterday, the leading power battery company filed a lawsuit against Hive Energy on the grounds of unfair competition, which triggered heated discussions.
It is reported that this is the follow-up to the previous lawsuit against departing employees in the catheter era. According to the court's judgment documents, between 2018 and 2019, a number of former employees of the NINGD era joined Wuxi Tianhong and Baoding Yixin respectively after leaving their jobs, both of which are affiliates of Hive Energy, and the latter is a competitor of the NINGDE era.
Some analysts believe that the move of the CATL era is intended to maintain the trade secrets accumulated over the years, and at the same time build an intellectual property moat in the industry.
Screenshot source: Tianyancha
In fact, as early as May 2021, the rights defense war between the Ningde era and Hive Energy has begun. According to the information, the most recent lawsuit between the two companies will be officially heard at 9 a.m. on February 23.
It is worth noting that this is a critical period for Hive Energy to carry out listing counseling. In January this year, the company conducted a listing counseling filing at the Jiangsu Securities Regulatory Bureau. At this time, if the results of the court failure with competitors, it may affect their valuation and even the progress of the IPO.
The history of "battery brother" rights protection continues
In recent years, the lithium-ion battery market has developed rapidly, especially the growth momentum of electric vehicles is strong, driving the continuous expansion of industrial scale. Increasingly fierce competition in the industry has made patent litigation one of the most effective means for major battery manufacturers to safeguard their own interests and ensure competitiveness.
A few years ago, the patent war between LG Chem and SK Innovation, two of South Korea's leading EV battery manufacturers, was raging. In 2021, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a final ruling on the trade secret dispute, prohibiting SKI from selling batteries, modules, battery packs and related parts in the United States for the next 10 years.
The loss of the US EV market is an extremely cruel judgment for power battery manufacturers, but it also reflects the serious consequences that patent infringement may bring.
Earlier, CATL filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Jiangsu Tafir New Energy, which was eventually awarded about 23.3 million yuan in damages. It is understood that the cause of the incident was the ternary lithium power battery carried by the Euler brand pure electric car under Great Wall Motor, which was accused of using the utility model patent of the "explosion-proof device" of the Ningde era without permission. The battery manufacturer mentioned is actually Jiangsu Tafil.
In addition, CATL formally sued AVIC Lithium Battery last year, saying that the latter was suspected of infringing its entire range of product patents. IN RESPONSE, AVIC Lithium Battery said that it had submitted a request for invalidation of the patent involved in the lawsuit to the State Intellectual Property Office, and would respond to the lawsuit according to legal procedures and was not afraid of challenges.
Who is the name of Hive Energy?
Recently, the hive energy that has been targeted by the Ningde era has actually come to a great place. According to the data of Tianyancha, the actual controller of Hive Energy is Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors.
In February 2018, Hive Energy completed a seed round of financing invested by Great Wall Motors. Up to now, Hive Energy has conducted 7 rounds of financing of more than 20 billion yuan, and the current valuation has reached 46 billion yuan.
According to the 2021 global power battery installed capacity ranking released by SNE Research, the top ten global power battery installed capacity in 2021 are CATL, LG, Panasonic, BYD, SKI, Samsung SDI, Zhongxin Airlines (AVIC Lithium Battery), Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Envision Power, and Hive Energy.
Last year, the global installed capacity of CATL reached 96.7GWh, with a market share of 32.6%, an increase of 167.13% over the global installed capacity of 36.2GWh in 2020; the installed capacity of Honeycomb Energy increased by 416.67% year-on-year, and the market share increased to 1%.
Although in the above-mentioned cases, there is no substantial evidence that Hive Energy has infringed on the trade secrets and patents of the CATL era. However, NINGDE times has always been well versed in protecting the company's tangible interests through rights protection.
When CATL sued AVIC Lithium Battery, some analysts pointed out that the latter snatched the battery purchase orders of GAC Aegean and other models from the NINGDE era. Some time ago, Xiaopeng Automobile said that the price of batteries in the Ningde era has increased significantly, and it will be gradually replaced by the batteries of AVIC lithium batteries in the future.
The same is true for Hive Energy. It is understood that great wall motors' main new energy battery suppliers include CATL, Hive Energy and Fu Neng Technology.
As a battery manufacturer supported by Great Wall Motors, Honeycomb Energy has considerable growth potential. Perhaps, this is also the worry of the Ningde era.