As a technology intensive industry, patent disputes in the lithium battery industry have been ongoing in recent years.

Following the disclosure in May of this year that Enjie Co., Ltd. sued Hebei Jinli New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jinli Co., Ltd.) for three patent infringements, Enjie Co., Ltd. sued again on August 8th for infringement of the company's other two invention patent rights, with a total claim amount of 210 million yuan.

Enjie Co., Ltd. Jointly sues Jinli Co., Ltd. with Emperor of Japan

On August 8th, Enjie Corporation announced that its subsidiary Shanghai Enjie New Material Technology Co., Ltd. and Japan Imperial Corporation (hereinafter referred to as Japan Imperial) had filed a lawsuit with the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court regarding the infringement of the company's invention patent rights by Jinli Corporation and related parties. This patent infringement lawsuit consists of 2 cases, with a total claim amount of 210 million yuan.

According to the announcement of Enjie Co., Ltd., the two patents involved in the above-mentioned infringement lawsuit include ZL201380061102.8 and ZL201810710744.0 invention patents. As of the disclosure date of the announcement, both cases mentioned above have been filed and have not been heard in court.

This is the second time within this year that Enjie Group has disclosed a lawsuit against Jinli Group and related parties for infringement of the company's invention patent rights. If combined with the relevant patent lawsuits previously disclosed by Enjie Group, Jinli Group will face a total claim of over 280 million yuan.

Ranked first and fourth in market share respectively

According to the statistics of Gaogong Lithium Battery, Enjie Group and Jinli Group respectively rank first and fourth in the domestic wet lithium battery separator market share.

As the top and fourth ranked companies in the industry, Enjie Group and Jinli Group have a lot of overlap in terms of products and customers. Enjie Group introduced in its 2022 annual report that wet lithium battery separators are an important part of the company's membrane products, mainly used in the manufacturing of new energy vehicle lithium batteries, 3C products, and energy storage fields. The related customers mainly include mainstream lithium battery enterprises such as Panasonic, LGES, Samsung, Ningde Times, Zhongchuang Xinhang, Guoxuan High tech, Yiwei Lithium Energy Funeng, and Lishen.

Jinli Co., Ltd. stated in its prospectus that its main revenue comes from the sales of wet base membranes and coated diaphragms, and its downstream applications are also in the fields of automotive batteries mentioned above. Its customers include Ningde Times, BYD, Guoxuan High Tech, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Lishen, etc. It has also started supplying small quantities to overseas new energy battery manufacturers such as LG Chemical and South Korean SKI.

Enterprises should attach importance to intellectual property protection

Industry insiders have analyzed that this is a patent war in the lithium battery separator industry and also a leading enterprise's fight against the "rising star" IPO.

In recent years, cases of patent infringement involving IPO companies have also occurred from time to time. Companies such as Entropy Technology and Yilai Intelligent are all involved in patent infringement disputes during their IPOs.

For technology companies, intellectual property protection is an important guarantee for whether their R&D investment can be converted into a competitive advantage, and it is also a top priority for companies in the listing process.

Therefore, if a company is preparing to apply for listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, it should focus on its own core technologies and products, plan and layout its intellectual property rights in advance, and avoid making intellectual property rights a "stumbling block" on the way to an IPO.

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