The final ruling on the battery patent lawsuit between LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation has been postponed to Feb. 10, the third delay in the US court case.

The US International Trade Commission announced the delay on Thursday, without providing specific reasons. The court was originally scheduled to rule on Oct. 5, then the decision was delayed to Oct. 26 and then again to Thursday.

The two Korean battery makers released official statements regarding the holdup, but with different interpretations. LG filed the suit in April last year, accusing SK of a trade secret theft and seeking to block the rival’s production and sales of batteries in the US.

SK Innovation offered an optimistic interpretation, arguing that the USITC must have put off the final ruling to further review the case and the impact it will have on the US economy.

“As the lawsuit drags on to the next year, it is our hope that both companies make wise decisions to end this dispute as soon as possible to address uncertainties and focus on each other’s businesses,” an SK Innovation official said.

LG Energy Solution said the delay is merely a procedural matter.

“Though the USITC hasn’t disclosed an exact reason, more than 50 cases have been delayed this year due to the coronavirus outbreak,” an LG Energy Solution official said.

From March to October, the USITC processed nine of the 14 cases that had been previously delayed. In all the nine cases, the USITC upheld preliminary rulings, the official added.

LG Energy Solution claims SK Innovation has violated battery trade secrets, destroyed evidence shortly after the suit was filed and did not properly comply with a USITC forensic order to restore the deleted information.

In February, the USITC made a preliminary ruling in favor of LG Energy Solution, ruling by default that SK Innovation had infringed on LG’s electric vehicle battery trade secrets.

A default judgment occurs when a court rules in favor of the plaintiff because of the defendant’s failure to fulfill its responsibilities. In this case, the USITC said SK Innovation had intentionally impaired the investigation by deleting, moving, hiding and altering evidence.

If the ITC decides to uphold the default ruling, SK Innovation will have to halt shipments of EV batteries, parts and manufacturing equipment to the US, where it has an EV battery plant under construction in Georgia that is set to mass produce batteries for Volkswagen from 2022.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)