Hyundai Defeats Lithium Battery Tech Trade Secrets Lawsuit

Hyundai Motor Co. convinced a California federal judge to dismiss Soelect Inc.'s lawsuit accusing the South Korean manufacturer of stealing “revolutionary” lithium battery technology for electric vehicles.

Soelect failed to demonstrate that any of the alleged trade secret misappropriation occurred in the United States, and an amended complaint would be futile because California isn’t the proper venue, according to an order issued Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

A representative of HATCHI, a Hyundai subsidiary in Michigan, contacted Soelect about its “Lithium-X Anode product” in February 2019, according to the order. The parties entered ...