CALB Dips as Chinese EV Battery Maker Loses Latest IP Lawsuit to Rival CATL

(Yicai Global), Feb. 21 – Shares in China Lithium Battery Technology Group, also known as CALB, slumped as much as 3.3 percent today after a Chinese court ruled against Chinese electric car battery maker arch-rival Contemporary Amperex Technology to pay compensation for infringement of a battery patent. A similar ruling follows against CALB in a separate lawsuit several months earlier.

CALB share price [HKG:3931] was trading up 0.6 percent at HKD22.25 (USD2.84) as of 12:00 Chinese time. Earlier in the day it collapsed to HKD21.65. While the existence of CATL [SHE:300750] was trading down 1 percent at CNY416 (USD60.50).

CALB must pay CNY 35.8 million (US$5.2 million) in compensation for economic losses to CATL and immediately stop infringing on the patent of southeast Fujian-based company Ningde, the Fuzhou Intermediate Court in Fujian province ruled in a ruling first instance judgment recently.

Immediately after the judgment was published, CALB filed a request for invalidation of the affected patent with the China National Intellectual Property Administration and announced that it would appeal.

CALB is no longer using the product affected by the litigation as it has already reached the end of its life cycle and has been replaced by more advanced technology, CALB said today in Changzhou, east Jiangsu province. So the ruling will not adversely affect the company’s operations and performance, he added.

This is just one of a series of battery technology IP lawsuits that CATL has filed against CALB since the second half of 2021. In total, CATL is seeking CNY648 million (US$95.7 million) in compensation, nearly six times CALB’s 2021 net profit.

In a separate lawsuit decided by the Fuzhou Intermediate Court in November last year, CALB was ordered to pay CATL CNY2.6 million (US$378,000) in economic losses, CNY127,500 (US$18,560) in patent fees and CNY200,000 in litigation costs . It was still a fraction of the CNY 78 million that CATL was seeking.

Another three patent lawsuits are still in the courts.

According to the South Korean research agency SNE Research, CATL dominated the global battery market for electric vehicles in the first nine months of last year with a share of 35.1 percent and delivered 119.8 gigawatt hours of batteries. CALB took seventh place and claimed a 4 percent market share with 13.7 GWh. In China, CATL is the largest supplier, followed by BYD and CALB.

Publisher: Kim Taylor